Welcome back to another edition of Ottawa Senators News & Rumors. In this installment, we will look at the aftermath of the Oct. 1 preseason matchup against the Montreal Canadiens. Things got out of hand throughout the game, and the Senators ended up with Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stutzle, and Thomas Chabot leaving the game with injuries and not returning. We will also look at the impact Ridly Greig had on the game, and how it will lead into the regular season.
Stutzle Gets Headshot From Arber Xhekaj
The camera angles on the exact play were not great, but based on what is available, it is unclear how much contact Arber Xhekaj’s elbow had with Stutzle’s head on the play.
In the second period of play, after things were already getting dicey, Xhekaj made a cross-ice hit attempt and got his elbow high in a “chicken wing” style hit. Stutzle immediately fell to the ice and while he got back up fairly promptly, there was a lot of attention being focused on his nose.
Some angles appear to show it being Stutzle’s own stick hitting him, while others have shown the elbow making contact. Neither one shows definitively what caused the injury, but regardless, it was a cheap shot by Xhekaj with a clear attempt to injure.
Tkachuk Stands Up For Stutzle, Gets Injured
Immediately after the hit Xhekaj delivered on Stutzle, captain Tkachuk did what everybody expected and dropped the gloves with Xhekaj. It wasn’t a very spirited fight, and neither player landed any good punches as Xhekaj went to the ice very quickly, but Tkachuk ended up leaving the game with an injury and did not return.
There will always be fights to go along with Tkachuk’s play, and this is a scenario where it is certainly okay for him to be fighting, but it also shows the exact reason why general manager Steve Staios went out and acquired players like David Perron, Nick Cousins, and has Zack MacEwen in the lineup. On top of that, training camp was a tough one, like head coach Travis Green typically has.
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Tkachuk is a superstar player, and missing time due to injuries suffered in fights, and even having him in the penalty box for five minutes, can be detrimental to the team.
Again, in this case, it made perfect sense for Tkachuk to fight, and while there haven’t been any injury updates on Tkachuk, the hope is that it was just precautionary and not a hand injury.
Chabot Leaves Game, Reasons Unknown
There were no specific plays that clearly caused an injury to Chabot during the game, and it was announced by the Senators Communications account on X that he left and wouldn’t return. They did clearly state that it was precautionary, and that could mean a million different things.
Chabot has been injury-prone, and after dealing with multiple different injuries last season, the hope is that with the game being meaningless and getting out of hand, they pulled him from the game so he didn’t push himself too hard if there is a minor injury surfacing.
All three of the players who left are to be evaluated on Oct. 2, according to Green. Whether the news comes out right away or not, all three star players being injured isn’t good news.
Ridly Greig’s “Friendship” Tour
Ridly Greig showed up on many people’s radar after the notorious empty-net slapshot that led to Morgan Rielly cross-checking him in the head. Since then, Greig hasn’t had any signs of slowing down from his extremely pesky play. Earlier in the preseason, he was tripped up by Toronto Maple Leafs forward Pontus Holmberg, and it appeared to be a clear target on him.
Against the Canadiens, Greig wasted no time showing off his pesky play by delivering a late hit to Kirby Dach, who has had a slew of injury issues lately. The hit was clean outside of being late, but Dach still ended up going to the locker room but would return later in the game.
A few minutes later, Canadiens defenseman Jayden Struble hit Greig with a near-identical hit. Clean, hard, but late. Greig skated it off and the exchange didn’t amount to anything immediately.
In the third period, Dach had followed Greig around, with a few pushes and slashes, and ended up with a roughing penalty. Upon leaving the penalty box, Dach and Greig met again and this time had a pretty long-lasting fight. There weren’t many hard punches landed, but the passion in the fight was there.
Greig is drawing penalties, giving the team energy, and playing well on both sides of the puck. There isn’t much more he can be doing to make an impact on the team.
While we await injury updates, final preseason cuts, and announcements from the team, be sure to come back for all of the latest news and rumors surrounding the Senators.
