“I need help fixing”: Podcaster Brent Wallace extends support to Linus Ullmark after he opens up about his mental health

As Linus Ullmark was on leave from the Senators for a personal matter, the Senators' goaltender has finally opened up about how the erroneous rumors related to his prolonged absence from the NHL have affected him mentally. The player who has been away from the club due to personal reasons has recently been the victim of massive online trolling due to his leave of absence.The 32-year-old goaltender sat down with TSN’s Claire Hanna in an interview that will appear in full later on Tuesday on TSN.ca and on TSN’s YouTube channel. Ullmark, who is not active on social media, says that he didn’t learn of the rumours firsthand. “Like I didn’t know about this until days later,” the goaltender said.After his interview was released on YouTube, former NHL reporter and now podcaster Brent Wallace has extended his support to Linus Ullmark’s struggle with mental health, which was affected by the controversial remark made about him for his prolonged absence from the team.Ottawa Senators goaltender Linus Ullmark has recently opened up about his mental health during a recent interview with TSN. Speaking for the first time since his absence, Ullamark described feeling as if he were broken and said that he took his time to focus on fixing himself. Ullmark stressed that his choice to speak was personal and not planned. Speaking to TSN’s Claire Hann, he stated, "Well, there's no greater things that I try to achieve," Ullmark said. "I just wanted to feel whole again. I wanted to be me. I wanted to feel like myself again. I didn't contact Dr. Gold or Dominico or Steve and said, "Hey, I'm going to take an absence of leave because I feel like it and give me some [time]." (source: Sportskeeda)Meanwhile, Brent Wallace has extended his support to Ullmark. He posted the interview on his social media account and wrote, Linus Ullmark, 'I'm broken and I need help fixing" is a powerful statement and hard to share publicly. If you have battled with mental health issues, as I have, that one sentence will resonate with you. You can hear and understand the battle.”Earlier, rumors and speculations claimed that he was involved in a cheating scandal, which the team has denied, calling it a completely fabricated and false story.Speaking about the erroneous rumours that spread on social media in the wake of his departure, he stated, “People wonder why hockey players, professional athletes, are not talking [publicly], why we’re not showing any sort of emotions, why mental health in men and in women [is] a stigma.He further said, “It took [people online] less than 24 hours from my [leave of absence] to try to find reasons why I’m gone, saying that I’m a homewrecker, a person that no one likes on the team, and I can’t defend myself.” These baseless rumors and trolling have truly affected the goaltender’s mental health a lot.As per reports, Ullmark was last seen playing on December 27 against Toronto, where he allowed four goals. Acquired from Boston in June 2024, he signed a four-year, $33 million extension in October. This season, Ullmark holds a 14-8-5 record with a 2.95 goals against average and an .881 save percentage in his second season with the Senators. At the moment, he stands at 41st in the NHL in goals against average (3.00) and 49th in save percentage (.879).