VANCOUVER \u2014 Nearly 20 years after getting drafted, James Reimer doesn\u2019t take playing in the NHL for granted.<\/p>\n
Starts aren\u2019t as frequent for the 37-year-old goalie these days, but he\u2019s still backstopping his team to big wins.<\/p>\n
His latest came Monday when the veteran netminder stopped all 16 shots he faced as his Ottawa Senators blanked the Canucks 2-0 in Vancouver.<\/p>\n
It was Reimer\u2019s first shutout in a Sens\u2019 jersey, coming after he signed with Ottawa (32-22-9) as a free agent on Jan. 12, and the 32nd of his long career.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re always grateful. I mean, obviously, I\u2019m obviously filled with a ton of gratitude for the opportunity to play \u2026 and for this organization to give me the chance and believe in me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think every (win) is special and it\u2019s the best league in the world and so when you get to have a shutout, it\u2019s a testament to how we played tonight. But obviously, it\u2019s fun when it happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Canucks (19-37-8) tested Reimer in the second period, peppering him with nine shots across the frame.<\/p>\n
Vancouver came close 6:24 into the frame after centre Teddy Blueger slipped a pass to Max Sasson in the slot. Sasson glided in and blasted a shot from the top of the crease, only to see the goalie slide into position to take it off his shoulder, then glove the puck down, smothering the rebound.<\/p>\n
Monday marked Reimer\u2019s first start since Feb. 5 \u2014 Ottawa\u2019s last game before the Olympic break, when the Senators edged the Philadelphia Flyers 2-1 in overtime. <\/p>\n
He joked that he\u2019d told Senators head coach Travis Green he\u2019d need a minimum of four weeks rest after his last start.<\/p>\n
Green said Monday was \u201cjust a veteran game\u201d from the goaltender.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard when you haven\u2019t played in that long but when guys have played in the league for a while, they keep their game sharp, and he\u2019s worked extremely hard,\u201d Green said. \u201cI was real happy for him. He made some big saves in the second and shutouts are hard to come by in this league, and it\u2019s nice to see him get one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Getting back into a game is all about being prepared, Reimer said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s kind of the same mindset that you always have, but you just got to make sure you\u2019re really into it in the sense that you\u2019re trusting your game,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s a tendency to get jumpy or get a little antsy when you haven\u2019t seen game action in a bit. And I think it\u2019s just trusting it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reimer is now the third goaltender in NHL history to record a shutout with seven different franchises, having accomplished the feat with Ottawa, Toronto, San Jose, Florida, Carolina, Detroit and Buffalo. Cam Talbot and Sean Burke are the only other netminders to reach the milestone.<\/p>\n
His wife and kids were in the crowd at Rogers Arena to witness the performance, and Reimer said it was \u201cpretty special\u201d to win in front of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy wife, obviously, is a huge part of my success, and the amount of sacrifice she does for me to follow my dream and our kiddos get dragged along in the process, and so it\u2019s awesome when you can have success in front of them,\u201d he said. \u201dAnd in this case, I have a lot of extended family too, and so it was great to do it in front of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Foote dislikes goal ruling<\/p>\n
The Senators got on the board at the 10:11 mark of the second period when a puck hit Shane Pinto and pinged out to Ridly Greig. The centre corralled the puck, then blasted a shot into the Canucks net to make it 1-0. <\/p>\n
Vancouver challenged the play for a missed stoppage, arguing the deflection off Pinto counted as a hand pass. A video review upheld the call on the ice, but Canucks head coach Adam Foote did not agree. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was told by the referee that if a guy protects his face, it\u2019s a goal. And I told him it\u2019s not in the rule book. \u2026 It\u2019s clearly not stated,” he said after the game. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe way it\u2019s stated, it should have been overruled.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kane sidelined<\/p>\n
Canucks winger Evander Kane did not play Monday. <\/p>\n
Foote said the 34-year-old forward has been dealing with upper-body \u201cdiscomfort\u201d and the team opted to sit him to try and \u201csettle it down.\u201d <\/p>\n
Kane has 11 goals and 27 points over 61 games for Vancouver this season. <\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 10, 2026.<\/p>\n
Gemma Karstens-Smith, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VANCOUVER \u2014 Nearly 20 years after getting drafted, James Reimer doesn\u2019t take playing in the NHL for granted.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739,82],"class_list":["post-526669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ottawa","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}