The Senators keep patching the blue line, and somehow the wins keep coming. But the latest injury scare reminded everyone just how thin the group has become.
On Monday night in New Jersey, Ottawa beat the Devils 4-1 but lost Nikolas Matinpalo in the first period after he was slammed into the boards by winger Anthony Mantha. Coach Travis Green said after the game that “it was pretty obvious” what the injury was, a sign Matinpalo likely suffered a concussion. The Senators had to finish the night with only five defenders.
There is no timetable yet for Matinpalo, who had stepped into a key role while Ottawa has been dealing with a long list of injuries on the back end. He’s been a steady presence, and the Senators will miss that stability if he’s out for any length of time.
The good news, at least, is starting to arrive. Before Tuesday night’s game against the St.
Louis Blues at Canadian Tire Centre, Green said both Jake Sanderson and Artem Zub had skated and were close to returning. He said, “Expecting both in the next couple of days.”
That’s the kind of update Ottawa badly needs. The Senators opened the night with a 5-1-0 record, their best start since 2007-08, but they’ve been walking a tightrope while leaning on goaltender Linus Ullmark and clutch scoring, especially from Tim Stutzle.
Sanderson’s absence has been one of the biggest concerns. He left midway through Ottawa’s season opener on Oct. 3 against the Toronto Maple Leafs after aggravating a lower-body injury he initially suffered in the preseason on Sept. 29 against the Montreal Canadiens.
That issue was separate from the one that kept him out of the first week of training camp. He has been skating on his own, but he still hasn’t joined a full practice with the team.
Zub’s road back has been even longer. He hasn’t played since suffering a knee injury while hitting Seth Jarvis in Game 1 of the Senators’ playoff series last spring against the Carolina Hurricanes.
He did not have surgery, has been skating since returning to Ottawa in August, and was originally expected to be ready for the start of the season. But Green said during camp that Zub “suffered a setback,” which pushed things back.
Zub skated with the team before Saturday’s home game against the Nashville Predators, so he may be closer than Sanderson.
Ottawa has already been here before, and not that long ago. The Senators used 13 defencemen across 82 games last season, and once Zub returns, he’ll be the 10th blue-liner to wear the jersey this year.
The turnover keeps growing. Cam Crotty, who started the season as the extra defender, was placed on injured reserve Sunday with an undisclosed injury after being a late scratch for last Thursday’s home opener against the Philadelphia Flyers. That opened the door for rookie Hoyt Stanley, who stepped in during Ottawa’s 2-1 win.
Jorian Donovan also entered the picture this week. He made his season debut against the Blues on Tuesday night and became the ninth defenceman to play for Ottawa in its first seven games.
Donovan had been called up over the weekend but was scratched against New Jersey. The 22-year-old played the first two NHL games of his career last season and missed most of training camp with a lower-body injury.
With bodies dropping, the workload on the healthy defenders has climbed. Thomas Chabot has been asked to carry a heavy load and is averaging more than 27 minutes a night, up five minutes from last season. Carter Yakemchuk, who Ottawa wasn’t sure about keeping at the end of camp because of questions about his defensive game, logged more than 22 minutes against the Devils on Monday.
So far, the Senators have survived the damage. The real test is whether they can keep doing it long enough for the lineup to heal. Getting Sanderson and Zub back would go a long way toward making sure this start doesn’t slip away.
In Other News...
Senators Rough Night At Home Just Raised A Bigger Concern
A three-game winning streak disappeared in a hurry at home Tuesday night, and the Senators never found much of a foothold in a 7-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues. Ottawas offense was limited to goals from Claude Giroux and Fabian Zetterlund, part of a night in which the club generated only 17 shots and spent too much time chasing the game.
The bigger concern, though, was at the other end, where Samuel Ersson made his first home start for Ottawa and was quickly overwhelmed. The backup goaltender gave up seven goals on 26 shots, leaving the Senators with an unsettling result that went well beyond a single bad outing and into the kind of performance that can start asking harder questions about the overall direction of the team. [Read more 🡒]
Ottawa Letting Leevi Merilainen Go Looks Tougher By The Week
Leevi Merilainen keeps giving Vancouver a reason to lean on him, and the latest example came in a game against the New York Islanders. With Thatcher Demko sidelined, the young goaltender stepped into a bigger role and helped keep the Canucks competitive even after they gave up two quick goals late in the first period.
Merilainen finished with 35 saves as Vancouver clawed back to tie it in the second period before the Islanders pulled away in the third. For Ottawa, which let Merilainen get away, the early returns keep making that decision look harder to justify each time he gets a meaningful chance to play. [Read more 🡒]
Flyers Blue Line Still Has A Problem As Injuries Keep Lingering
In a stretch where injuries keep reshaping lineups across the Atlantic Division, the Senators are watching their own health picture closely after Ridly Greig exited a recent game with a strain. Ottawa has not offered a firm update on his status, which adds another layer of uncertainty at a time when the club is already tracking absences elsewhere around the division, including Buffalo being without Rasmus Dahlin, Tyson Kozak and Alex Lyon for its next game against Toronto.
For Ottawa, Greigs availability matters because he has been a regular part of the mix this season, taking on meaningful minutes and contributing in a supporting role. The concern now is less about one game than about whether the Senators will be able to keep their forward group intact as Philadelphia continues to deal with blue-line injuries and the ripple effects of these lineup holes keep growing. [Read more 🡒]