Ottawa Senators Dealing With Multiple Injuries

The Ottawa Senators may have won a high-scoring contest against the Los Angeles Kings earlier in the afternoon, but they will not come away unscathed. During the game, it had already been reported that defenseman Artem Zub would not return to action, and the team is still waiting for more tests with him. To add insult to injury, TSN’s Bruce Garrioch reported that forward Ridly Greig is expected to miss a week or two with an upper-body injury and a follow-up report indicated goaltender Linus Ullmark would miss a few days due to a strain.

Unfortunately for the Senators the team has a relatively quick turnaround before their next game which comes Thursday against the red-hot New Jersey Devils. The team should announce as quickly as tomorrow whether or not Ullmark and Zub will be available for that contest.

Ottawa has already recalled goaltender Mads Sogaard on an emergency basis to fill in for the injured Ullmark who wasn’t available for today’s contest against the Kings. They utilized depth forward Adam Gaudette in today’s game to fill in for Greig but the team is likely to make a recall in the next few days with Greig potentially out until the end of October.

Greig’s absence shouldn’t put too much strain on the lineup early in the season with the organization opting to shorten his ice time out of the gates compared to last season. Greig managed 13 goals and 26 points in 72 games for the Senators last season while averaging 14:45 of ice time per night but only averaged 14:03 against the Florida Panthers and Montreal Canadiens while centering the team’s fourth line.

Gaudette appears to be the best option to center the team’s fourth line moving forward with likely call-ups Matthew Highmore, Jan Jenik, and Angus Crookshank typically deployed on the wing throughout their careers. Still, Ottawa now has only 12 healthy forwards on the roster and will likely require an additional option up front especially when they leave for a three-game western road trip next week.

Arguably the most crucial point of the injury report is that Ullmark is not expected to be out long-term. Head coach Travis Green couldn’t confirm if Ullmark would be in the net on Thursday against the Devils but indicated the team’s game on Saturday against the Tampa Bay Lightning should be a reasonable return date.