SENATORS FACING ADVERSITY ON DEFENCE BECAUSE OF INJURIES
Only two games into the regular season, the Ottawa Senators are already dealing with a thin blueline.
First, they didn’t have captain Erik Karlsson because he’s recovering from foot surgery in June. Then, they finish Game 1 last Thursday against the Washington Capitals without Johnny Oduya because of an unspecified lower-body injury.
If that wasn’t enough, then they reached down to their American Hockey League affiliate in Belleville for defenceman Ben Harpur and he left Saturday’s contest against the Detroit Red Wings with a shoulder injury.
Now, with the Senators starting a three-game western Canadian road swing against the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena on Tuesday night, it looks as if head coach Guy Boucher may be ready to give Belleville call-ups Thomas Chabot and Christian Jaros their chances by dressing seven defencemen.
Yes, it’s possible either Oduya or Karlsson could join the Senators on Tuesday — they skated Monday in Ottawa — but Boucher indicated they were “both highly doubtful.” Since winger Mike Hoffman missed Monday’s skate at the University of British Columbia because of the flu, it’s possible the club could dress only 11 forwards.
Right now there are several balls in the air and no shortage of adversity.
“The first thing is you can’t kid yourself,” Boucher said after Monday’s 45-minute skate. “The last two games, we knew it was going to be tough without Erik. If you take (Connor) McDavid out of Edmonton and you take (Pittsburgh’s Sidney) Crosby out … those guys have such an impact.
“With Erik, it’s even more than those guys because we’re talking about sometimes 30 minutes a game. It’s not just the forward attacking, no; it’s the breakouts; it’s the transition starts with the (defence); it’s the (offensive) zone, straddling the blue-line; it’s the power play; it’s the way you defend; it’s the gap; it’s everything.
“That’s why a high-end defenceman like (Karlsson) impacts everything and even impacts the goaltending part because there’s such a confidence factor. It’s gigantic for us, and we know it’s a gigantic hole.”
Still, Boucher said the Senators couldn’t use the absences of Karlsson and Oduya as excuses. He noted the difficulty had been in finishing each of the first two games with only five healthy defencemen.
“When it rains it pours,” Senators defenceman Mark Borowiecki said. “We played with five defencemen for a large portion of the game and we did a good job managing our minutes. Hopefully, we can stick with six (defencemen) in this next game and we can get up in the play and help out a little more.”
The players that have been brought in are going to be given chances to show they can play at the National Hockey League level, and after training camp there’s plenty of confidence they can get the job done.
“That’s our top two guys gone,” Boucher said. “The adversity comes from the fact that you’re asking guys to do things that they’re not used to doing and for many minutes. We need those young defencemen to come and log minutes, not change, come here and make a gigantic difference.
“We need the other five guys to be able to breathe a little bit to able to do what they can do when we normally play with six guys. That’s what those young guys are going to have to come and help us with.”
If you think about it, after being pleased with their depth on defence going into camp in September, the Senators are lucky they’ve got it. If Chabot and Jaros both suit up against the Canucks, they will be the ninth and 10th defencemen used this season already.
“It’s being tested for sure,” Borowiecki said. “It’s going to be a good thing to see who’s going to be ready to take up those minutes. I was pretty excited to see Jaros coming up. I like him a lot. He’s a good kid and I like the way he plays.
“It’s always nice to see these guys get their crack and get their sniff early. It’s a good taste for them.”