The Ottawa Senators have played three games so far this season and Anton Forsberg has been in the net for every single minute of action. The 29-year-old netminder has been the only option in town since Cam Talbot suffered an injury in the preseason. When Forsberg missed the morning skate today, alarm bells went off in Ottawa, as fans wondered whether they would need to turn to Magnus Hellberg to carry the load. While Forsberg was just taking the morning off because of his heavy workload, there’s still no firm timeline for Talbot to return to game action.
In fact, Talbot still hasn’t been cleared to take shots, though he’s back on the ice according to head coach D.J. Smith. The veteran netminder was given a five to seven-week recovery timeline when he suffered the upper-body injury (believed to be a cracked rib) at the beginning of the month. It has been just two and a half to this point, meaning fans can at least take solace in the fact that he’s already on the ice.
While they have faith in Forsberg after his performance last season, Talbot was meant to carry a large chunk of the load this season after being acquired from the Minnesota Wild. Now, they’ll have to hope they don’t need to turn to Hellberg and his five games of NHL experience anytime soon.
The Senators don’t have a back-to-back situation on the schedule until the start of December, meaning there’s at least a chance that Forsberg can play every single game until Talbot gets back. Hopefully, with the progress he has made to this point, that date is sooner rather than later.
Ottawa should be happy about this news, There is nothing special about Talbot. Dorion might want find out what it will cost to get John Gibson and fire Smith.
Another great point Wilf. Ottawa trades for a guy who was 32-12-4 with a 2.76. gaa last season and you believe that the Sens should be happy that he is injured. You seem to have completely given up on any type of thinking. That said, I do rather look forward to your posts, given that the ridiculosity quotient seems to go up every time you warm up your typing finger.
I’m impressed how Forsberg went from waiver wire regular to “every single game”. Not an elite goalie for sure, but he fares way better than most expected.