Just two days after scoring another goal to make it six points in four games, it was announced that Brady Tkachuk will be out for a month with a torn ligament in his leg:
#Sens rookie Brady Tkachuk is expected to miss "about a month" after sustaining a torn ligament in his leg during Monday's win over the Dallas Stars.
— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) October 17, 2018
READ: https://t.co/VQT62yF54q pic.twitter.com/7LY6TJabZE
It’s a big blow for a team that was getting a ton of production out of their star rookie and the trio of Smith, Tkachuk, and Stone will have to be broken up. As I talked about yesterday, he has been electric in his first four games and it’s hard to imagine a better start to his Senators career. With 12 individual high-danger scoring chances, he ranks 13th in the entire league despite playing at least two fewer games than every player ahead of him except Nico Hischier.
It’s no hyperbole to say that Tkachuk has been Ottawa’s second best forward behind Mark Stone and he was becoming the main reason to tune into Senators games. It’s just very unfortunate that we will have to wait until mid-November to see him lace up again. I hope that the torn ligament isn’t anything too serious and that he is able to pick up where he left off on Monday because you never know with longer-term injuries.
With this newest injury to the team, the Senators organization continues to get some bad luck:
The Senators organization currently being ravaged by injuries in both the NHL and AHL.
— TSN 1200 (@TSN1200) October 17, 2018
NHL injuries- Gaborik, Pageau, Ceci, Dzingel, Forementon, McCormick (Stone and Tkachuk not on ice today.)
AHL injuries- Brown, Hogberg, Sexton, Luchuk, Chlapik, O'Brien, Sturtz.
After that tweet was sent, we know that Stone is fine and that Tkachuk is out for a month. Filip Chlapik’s twisted ankle is just day-to-day right now, but the overall IR situation is not looking good. I’m assuming that Ottawa will have to call up a forward, and I’m thinking it will be either Rudolfs Balcers or Drake Batherson. I’m hoping it will be Balcers because he has earned his time more than Batherson has.
Then again, Ryan Dzingel and Max McCormick might be ready to go for Saturday, meaning no call-up would be necessary:
Other Sens injury news: Cody Ceci (upper body) & Alex Formenton (concussion) are not expected to be ready for this weekend’s game vs MTL.
— Ian Mendes (@ian_mendes) October 17, 2018
Ryan Dzingel & Max McCormick could be ready to return. Mark Stone - who missed today’s skate - should be ready to return tomorrow.
Either way, there are a lot of injuries right now, and the one that is the most deflating is the Tkachuk one. I never thought he would be winning the Calder this year, but any slight hope of him winning that is now gone because missing one month is too much time. Here’s to a speedy recovery for the 4th overall pick.