When Ottawa was forced to recall Kevin Mandolese yesterday in the wake of Anton Forsberg’s injury, there were concerns about whether this was the next of a long list of significant injuries the Senators have dealt with this season. Fortunately for them, it doesn’t appear that this is the case. Head coach D.J. Smith told reporters, including Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch, that while Forsberg won’t play tomorrow in Los Angeles, he isn’t expected to be out much longer with the team classifying him as out day-to-day. It has been a bit of a tough start to the season for Forsberg as he has a 3.43 GAA and a .904 SV% in his first 13 games which is part of the reason that the Sens enter play today at the bottom of the Atlantic Division.
Other goalie news from around the NHL:
- Hurricanes goaltender Frederik Andersen has yet to start skating as he continues to work his way back from an undisclosed injury that has kept him out for the last couple of weeks, relays Cory Lavalette of the North State Journal. However, head coach Rod Brind’Amour indicated that while Andersen has been out longer than expected, he’s at least improving a little bit. It’s hardly the start to the season that the pending UFA was looking for as he has a save percentage of just .891 through his first eight games and for a goalie that has often been injured throughout his career, recovering from this issue slower than expected doesn’t help.
- When the Red Wings claimed Magnus Hellberg off waivers from Seattle earlier this week, the move raised some eyebrows considering that both Ville Husso and Alex Nedeljkovic are healthy. Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press indicates that GM Steve Yzerman’s idea for the claim was to simply give them some insurance knowing that their schedule starts to get a bit more compressed in the coming weeks (they have 28 games over the next two months even with the holiday break). If something happens, they’re more comfortable with Hellberg over pulling someone up from AHL Grand Rapids. While Hellberg will get to stick on an NHL roster for a little longer now, it appears as if he’ll still be waiting a while to have a shot at making his second appearance of the season.
Hellberg can’t start fast enough for me, as Ned just is not cutting it! If Hellberg pushes Ned in to performing better, mission accomplished! If not, goodbye Ned!