Links, News and Notes: Goaltending is 75% of a hockey team

As the great Harry Neale is credited with saying, "Goaltending is 75% of your hockey team, unless you don't have it. Then it's 100%." The Sens made that obvious this weekend, as they outshot the Blue Jackets 43–23 but lost 4–2 on account of Korpisalo's .826, and then beat the Kraken 2–0 despite being outshot 39–28 because Forsberg stopped everything. Not surprisingly, that's where a bunch of the headlines lead off this week:

• Garrioch credits Forsberg with "leading the way" in ending the Sens' losing skid
• Alex Adams had similar praise for the golaie, saying that the Sens are hard to play against if (and that's a big if) they get goaltending. He also pointed out that specialteams matter, which yeah, allowing 2 PP goals against the Jackets and 3 against the Panthers really hurt the Sens.
• Just my own side note: the Sens are 9–2 when getting .900+ goaltending this season, and 0–8 when getting sub-.900 goaltending. This team really is great when getting just league-average tendies.
• A couple days later, but Wayne Scanlan had a great look over the weekend about what a busy December will teach us about the Sens
• Shane Pinto's suspension has really upped the urgency to instruct players on the potential pitfalls of sports gambling
• Ian Mendes has a rundown of 10 potential GM candidates for Ottawa. I wouldn't mind seeing Mathieu Darche or even Jason Spezza. I don't like the recycled names available. (Please, please, no Peter Chiarelli.)
• Over at Sens Talk, Luke Muise had a cathartic lament that the Sens are truly the Lowly Sens until they show us otherwise—note that this blog came before Saturday's game and we all felt great about the team again
• Moving around the league, ESPN's Power Rankings show me one important thing: the Sens haven't played much of any teams at the top of the NHL yet
• Your NHL rumour roundup has the Canucks looking to extend Pettersson and Hronek, given the team's surprise hot start
• The Avs' Ross Colton (no relationship) got a $5k fine for tripping Leo Carlsson, while Cale Makar is out indefinitely with a lower-body injury, one of the two worst injuries hockey players can suffer
• The Athletic updates its trade board, which unsurprisingly is predicting a Flames fire sale, with the top three spots all being from Calgary
• In an unusual move, Tyson Barrie has been given permission to talk to other teams about a potential trade. It seems hard to believe that a defenceman unable to crack the lineup of a middling squad could have value to someone else, but Nikita Zadorov got a late pick back as a third-pairing defenceman on the free-falling Flames
• John Tortorella ranted that players aren't taught enough how to be prepared for receiving a big hit anymore, and Adam Proteau agrees. I do agree with Proteau's point that a player shouldn't have to fight for a big, clean hit. If hitting stays part of the game, give an instigator penalty to whoever fights a guy for a clean hit
• Sportsnet looks at five college players who could garner interest from NHL teams, led by a pair of Quinnipiac forward. Bryan Murray famously said that a college free agent signing was on par with a 2nd-round pick, which was probably more likely him thinking of Jesse Winchester rather than Bobby Butler or Matt O'Connor
• The PWHL has put out its full schedule
• We've also got our first waiver-wire cuts from PWHL teams
• The PWHL's preseason evaluation camp gets underway with all six teams in Utica, NY today!
• January 2nd is when the Ottawa Alert kick off their inaugural season, at home against the Montreal Echo.
• And to wrap up, here's Anton Forsberg refusing to keep the firefighter helmet, instead giving it to Tim Stützle, who becomes the first repeat winner this year