The Ottawa Senators are heading into the next stretch without two more forwards, as Warren Foegele and Andre Burakovsky are both expected to miss three to four weeks after injuries suffered during the team’s West Coast trip.
Head coach Travis Green revealed the timeline before the Senators faced the San Jose Sharks, and he also said Philip Tomasino and Xavier Bourgault would be in the lineup. Even with those reinforcements, the bigger story remains the same one that has followed Ottawa early this season: the injuries keep piling up.
Foegele’s setback came Tuesday against the Vegas Golden Knights, when he was on the wrong end of a knee-on-knee hit. He left the game and needed help from teammates to get off the ice.
Ottawa initially listed him with a lower-body injury, and now the club has a clearer sense of how long he’ll be out. Foegele had already started the season injured, worked his way back into the lineup, and seemed to be settling in before this latest interruption.
Burakovsky’s injury came Thursday against the Los Angeles Kings, in a game Ottawa nearly flipped after falling behind 5-1 before eventually losing in overtime. He took several hits along the boards in the offensive zone and did not return. Green later described it as a lower-body injury, and the updated recovery window means Burakovsky will need even more time before he can really get comfortable with his new team.
For Ottawa, the pattern has become familiar: get healthy, lose more bodies, then reshuffle the lineup again. The Senators have managed that cycle well so far, and this latest pair of absences should open the door for more AHL call-ups to step in.
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