Steve Staios throws his own players under the bus.

The Ottawa Senators had their midseason address on Saturday and Senators general manager Steve Staios did not hold back when facing some tough questions from the media.

Staois addressed a number topics during his media availability but at one point he was asked a difficult question about the team's struggles on special teams, specifically as it pertains to the penalty kill, as well as the team's substandard goaltending. Asked if he felt his team would be in a playoff position if they had received better contributions from their players in both those roles, Staois pulled no punches with his response.

"Yes," said Staois bluntly. "I think that's pretty clear."

Although Staois answer may have seemed harsh, especially with Senators goaltender Linus Ullmark currently on a personal leave of absence, he explained that he was simply living in reality.

"We live in reality, when you look at it, you watch it, you look at the numbers that's really [it] and we have faith that both can improve."

The Senators currently have the second worst penalty kill in the entire National Hockey League with 71.6%, ahead of only the Seattle Kraken who have a penalty kill operating at just 70.3%. The goaltending situation has also been a subject of concern with the aforementioned Ullmark recording a 2.95 goals against average and a .881 save percentage over 28 games, and that was prior to his leave of absence.

With Ullmark out of the picture, at least for now, the Senators have had to turn to Leevi Merilainen who has a 3.46 goals against average and a .872 save percentage over 12 appearances this season with no obvious solutions on the horizon.

You can hear Staois full comments from today in the video below: