Injuries are always going to have a massive impact on how a team does in any given season. Sometimes you get lucky and avoid extended absences from top players, and sometimes the entire roster gets decimated. The 2013 season for the Senators stands out because they had a million injuries to players like Jason Spezza, Erik Karlsson, Craig Anderson, etc. Somehow, they ended up making the second round in the playoffs that season.
For the 2018-19 Senators though, they can ill-afford any sort of injuries because their baseline talent level is already so low. As of Sunday afternoon, Ottawa sits 30th in the entire NHL, just one point ahead of the lowly Los Angeles Kings. Plus the four teams immediately ahead of them have played fewer games than the Senators. After losing four games in a row, they’re right back in the basement, and it doesn’t help that their list of injuries is a long one:
Here is the Sens organizational injury list:
— Dean Brown (@PxPOttawa) December 30, 2018
MacArthur
Gaborik
Pageau
Condon
Anderson
Falk
Chabot
Jaros
Paajarvi
O'Brien
Brown
Luchuk
Carey
Chlapik
Sieloff
Obviously this is a bit misleading by including AHL injuries and two players who aren’t expected to play (MacArthur and Gaborik), but it’s still striking to see.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau is a 3C, Mike Condon is a backup, Craig Anderson is a #1, Justin Falk is a 7D, Thomas Chabot is a 1D, Christian Jaros is a 6D, Magnus Paajarvi is a fourth liner, plus Filip Chlapik and Logan Brown could easily be in the NHL if they weren’t injured. Even someone like Paul Carey isn’t a good NHL player, but he’s one of the best players on Belleville, so not having him is a big loss. When you add in the fact that Bobby Ryan, Matt Duchene, Brady Tkachuk, Dylan DeMelo, and others have all missed games this year, you realize how snake bitten the team has been in that regard.
In fact, only Mikkel Boedker, Chris Tierney, and Mark Stone have played every game this season.
Losing Chabot for three weeks is easily the biggest hit to the team this season just because the defense is historically bad even with him in the lineup. Now without him, it looks like an AHL lineup:
Tkachuk Tierney Stone
— TSN 1200 (@TSN1200) December 30, 2018
White Duchene Ryan
Paul Smith Rodewald
Dzingel Pyatt Boedker
Lajoie Ceci
Wolanin DeMelo
Borowiecki Harpur
Elliott
When Duchene missed a few games, at least the team had been scoring goals so they could have some sort of patchwork offense that would work temporarily. But without Chabot, it looks dreadful. Furthermore, Craig Anderson certainly hasn’t been his old self this season, but he has faced by far the most shots in the league this season, and considering the amount of high-quality chances he faces every night, he’s probably been close to league average in net. With the other options being Mike Condon, Mike McKenna, and an unproven Marcus Hogberg, having Anderson on the IR is also a massive hit.
The funny thing is that neither the defense nor the goaltending was bad (or even close to bad) last night against the Washington Capitals as they allowed just 24 shots and 50 shot attempts against. That was the least amount of shots on goal they have allowed in any game this season, and it was their second best possession game overall. Hogberg wasn’t fantastic, but it wasn’t a bad debut, either. I’m glad to see that he will start next game and I hope he gets a few games in a row to see what he can do.
Despite the solid effort in a 3-2 loss yesterday, expect things to get much worse in terms of on-ice results so long as these injuries are a constant. Things are already ugly considering they sit 2nd last in the league, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they fall behind even the basement dwellers. Here’s to a speedy recovery!