Injuries will likely force Boucher to shuffle Sens’ lineup for Game 4
Guy Boucher decided there was no need to make a change Tuesday night.
He likely won’t have a choice Thursday in Game 4.
The Senators finished the club’s 4-1 loss to the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden with only 10 forwards on the bench after Bobby Ryan (lower body) and Zack Smith (upper body) left with injuries in Game 3.
Boucher didn’t provide an update on their statuses, but Ryan took an Erik Karlsson shot in the thigh in the third, while Smith got hit by the Rangers’ Tanner Glass in the first and didn’t return. The Senators are fortunate they have depth, but the injuries don’t make the job of winning this series any easier.
“That’s two key players for us and it’s unfortunate,” said centre Jean-Gabriel Pageau. “We’d love for them to be OK. I don’t know what’s (wrong) with them, but we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do and that’s something that we can’t control. Hopefully they can come back and be ready for the next game.”
You can expect Tom Pyatt, who suffered an upper-body ailment in Game 4 of the Bruins series, will suit up because Boucher hasn’t liked sitting him.
“He is one of our most trusted guys,” Boucher said. “He’s one of our top (penalty killers). (Mike) Hoffman, (Jean-Gabriel) Pageau and Pyatt are a terrific line for us, but I think right now it’s just an opportunity to give him a few more days because everybody else is healthy and we’ve won with that lineup.
“That one’s a little hard, but at the same time, if you weren’t having success it would be a little harder.”
There is no timetable on defenceman Mark Borowiecki, who is out with a leg injury. He hasn’t played since Game 2 of the series against the Bruins and hasn’t even been skating with the team. He was headed on the ice Tuesday as most of the players were leaving and is still walking with a significant limp.