‘Another day, another B-sens call-up’
Goalie Lehner promoted as ‘crazy month’ continues
Ottawa Senators winger Erik Condra was searching Friday for the ideal way to sum up the latest developments for his injury-plagued team.
Eventually he settled on “another day, another B-Sens call-up.”
Indeed. After star goaltender Craig Anderson went down with a sprained right ankle Thursday, Robin Lehner became the latest arrival on the shuttle from Binghamton of the American Hockey League.
Somehow, the Senators have found a way to string together a three-game winning streak and they were part of a fourteam tie for fourth spot in the Eastern Conference before Friday’s games.
The Senators can pull ahead of the Toronto Maple Leafs when the clubs meet Saturday at Scotiabank Place, but on Friday anyway, the Battle of Ontario took a back seat to the internal Battle To Stay Healthy.
“At this point, (the injury list) doesn’t surprise me,” Condra continued, glancing around the dressing room. “It just seems like when it rains, it pours. One guy goes down, it’s like a whole slew goes down. It’s really one thing after another. Big guy, big guy, big guy, big guy. But we do have two big guys in net now.”
Until Anderson recovers from his injury — “it’s dayto-day, not a two- or threeweek type of thing,” according to Senators coach Paul MacLean — the net belongs to the 6-foot-7, 214-pound Ben Bishop and the 6-foot-4, 220-pound Lehner.
The story early Saturday will be which one gets the start against the Maple Leafs.
The circumstances present a touch of déjà vu for Bishop, who inherited the top job a year ago when Anderson cut his hand in a kitchen accident.
“Lucky enough, I had a little bit of experience with this last year in the same kind of situation when (Anderson) went down and I started seven games in a row,” said Bishop, who came on in relief of Anderson Thursday to register the win in the Senators’ 3-2 shootout victory over the New York Rangers. “I’m looking forward to the opportunity. Nobody wants to see (injuries), but it’s the reality and we’ve got to move forward and not think about it. There are enough guys here that want to step up and fill roles, so we’ll just go with that.”
Lehner, meanwhile, was in bed in Binghamton late Thursday when his phone began buzzing with messages to get his way to Ottawa. ASAP. He jumped in his car and arrived at about 4 a.m.
“If I get a shot, I will do my best,” said Lehner, who has patiently played the role of franchise goaltender-in-waiting this season. “If I don’t, I will try my best in practice.”
Except for his brief stint in Ottawa during training camp and when he served as a backup for Anderson for the opening two games of the NHL season, he has spent the season dominating AHL shooters. His numbers — 18-10-2, with a goals-against average of 2.12 and a save percentage of .938 — are almost as impressive as Anderson’s gaudy NHL numbers.
For the past few weeks, Lehner has watched teammate after teammate make the jump from Binghamton to Ottawa as injury replacements. The list includes Mika Zibanejad, Stéphane Da Costa, Eric Gryba, Dave Dziurzynski and Derek Grant. Da Costa went from Ottawa to Binghamton Friday, clearing up roster room for Lehner.
“It has been a crazy year, a crazy month, for the whole organization,” said Lehner, in what might go down as the understatement of the year. “We don’t have the team we had at the beginning of the year (in Binghamton). We’re like 15 guys short of that.”
While Lehner waits for his chance to make another impression in the big leagues, he’s hardly shocked by the impact the other Binghamton call-ups have been able to do in the NHL.
“Having been around them for a few years, I know what they can do and they’ve been doing great up here, I’m happy for them,” he said.
“They’re getting put in good spots and they’ve earned it. And there a lot of great players up here that can show them the way.”