{"id":418465,"date":"2026-01-20T20:13:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T20:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/418465\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T20:13:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T20:13:11","slug":"ottawa-senators-jake-sanderson-apologizes-for-comments-on-now-demoted-leevi-merilainen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/418465\/","title":{"rendered":"Ottawa Senators\u2019 Jake Sanderson apologizes for comments on now-demoted Leevi Merilainen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ottawa Senators<\/a> defenceman Jake Sanderson<\/a> told reporters on Tuesday he apologized for his comments made after a loss to the Montreal Canadiens<\/a> on Saturday, when he targeted the team\u2019s goaltending when speaking to reporters after the game.<\/p>\n

Sanderson said he apologized after the game when speaking on Tuesday after goalie Leevi Merilainen was demoted to the Belleville Senators of the American Hockey League.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst off, I\u2019m pretty embarrassed,\u201d Sanderson said. \u201cI think that\u2019s the situation where after a game you\u2019ve got to take a few more minutes. Take a few deep breaths\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201c… I talked to Leevi after the [game] and apologized,\u201d Sanderson continued. \u201cI still feel really bad. Leevi\u2019s a great guy. And I think that\u2019s not what good teammates do. You don\u2019t tear each other down. You build each other up, especially after a game like that. I\u2019m pretty embarrassed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senators head coach Travis Green<\/a> offered some support for his star defenceman on Tuesday as well. \u201cJake Sanderson<\/a>\u2019s one of the best teammates you\u2019re ever going to find in the league,\u201d Green said. \u201cIt\u2019s an emotional game. It\u2019s much like my comments after the game as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said it\u2019s hard to give him a free pass; I feel bad for him. I\u2019ve said that many times. Maybe a goal or two that you\u2019d like back. I think it was fairly obvious, and I think it was overblown. And it definitely didn\u2019t have an effect on our room.\u201d<\/p>\n

Merilainen, 23, made 13 saves on 19 shots in the 6-5 loss for a brutal .684 save percentage. He has an .860 save percentage and a 3.51 goals-against average in 20 games (19 starts) this season. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think, you know, Leevi [Merilainen] made some good saves,\u201d said Sanderson on Saturday. \u201cBut, you know, I think at the end of the day you\u2019ve got to make more than 10 saves to win a game.\u201d<\/p>\n

The third-year goaltender was thrust into the starting role after Linus Ullmark<\/a> took a leave of absence in December, and the results have not been good.<\/p>\n

Goaltending troubles have been a recurring theme for the Senators, who sit at the bottom of the Atlantic Division standings at 22-19-7 and have surrendered the fourth-most goals per game in the league this year (3.40).<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a little bit frustrating,\u201d admitted head coach Travis Green<\/a> on Saturday. \u201cBut, you know, I give our team a lot of credit, they\u2019re battling, they\u2019re playing good hockey. Our goalies haven\u2019t been at their best. We know that and our team is still bringing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

With no timetable for a potential return for Ullmark, the team signed 37-year-old goaltender James Reimer<\/a> earlier in January and recalled Hunter Shepard<\/a> to replace Merilainen on the NHL roster on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The Senators will take on the Blue Jackets in Columbus on Tuesday, which is the only team the Senators currently rank ahead of in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ottawa Senators defenceman Jake Sanderson told reporters on Tuesday he apologized for his comments made after a loss…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4759,5,4,33540],"class_list":{"0":"post-418465","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-ottawa-senators-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-9"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115929258734335797","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}