The past 24 hours have not been good for the Ottawa Senators when it comes to injuries. After learning they’ll be without winger Bobby Ryan for potentially up to six weeks earlier on Sunday, they lost wingers Mike Hoffman, Mark Stone, and Tommy Wingels all to separate injuries in a loss to the Jets.
Hoffman suffered a lower body injury in the second period while Stone left the game near the midway mark of the third following a hit to the head from Winnipeg blueliner Jacob Trouba. As for Wingels, he was injured with just under three minutes to go in a collision with Dustin Byfuglien.
While no updates were publicly available following the game, head coach Guy Boucher didn’t sound too optimistic in his postgame press comments (via Darren Desaulniers of the Canadian Press):
“It doesn’t look good. We have to wait until tomorrow to be clear and precise but right now we could be losing quite a few guys.”
Stone leads the Senators in goals and sits second in points behind only Erik Karlsson while Hoffman slots in fourth in team scoring. As for Wingels, he hasn’t been too active on the scoreboard but has provided the Sens with a physical presence in their bottom six.
In the short-term, this would seemingly provide an opportunity for Curtis Lazar to see a bigger role. Senators GM Pierre Dorion met with Lazar’s agent earlier this weekend and there were suggestions earlier in the week that his name had been popping up more frequently in trade talks. The former first round pick (17th overall in 2013) has had a nightmarish season so far with just a single assist in 31 games. Chris Neil, who was a healthy scratch on Sunday, also should be in line for more regular playing time if at least some of the injured trio will miss some time.
In the meantime, it seems likely that Dorion will be working the phones in the coming days to see what the cost might be to bring in some more depth up front as the Sens try to push for top spot in the Atlantic Division; they sit two points behind Montreal but have two games in hand.
They were starting to play really good and the division was looking really winnable. Oh well, hopefully they’re not as serious as they thought and they can come back quickly. This also adds pressure on dorion to complete a duchene trade