Zub nearing a return to bolster Sens blueline
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Artem Zub is nearing a return for the Ottawa Senators.
The defenceman has been out with an upper-body injury since taking a puck from an Alex Ovechkin shot to the ear against Washington on Oct. 18. If he continues to progress, Zub could be back in the lineup when the Senators host the L.A. Kings on Thursday.
“We’ll see how he reacts to today’s practice,” Senators head coach D.J. Smith said following Tuesday’s practice at the Canadian Tire Centre. “There was a lot of stopping, starting. A little bit of banging into each other. We’ll get a read after today.”
The Senators suffered three straight losses with Zub out of the lineup, finally getting back into the win column with a 5-2 victory over Pittsburgh on Saturday.
“On the right side, [Zub] has the best gap of anyone. He’s strong, hard to get to the net on, moves the puck well. He’s just really a good player,” Smith said.
Zub started the season playing alongside left-shot defender Jake Sanderson. Combined, the pair are plus-3 on the season. The duo were skating together again on Tuesday.
“Him and Sandy as a shutdown pair, especially at home, were giving [teams] nothing,” Smith noted. “Those two as a pair, their numbers were really good. Clearly we haven’t been the same without him.”
“He’s just steady presence every night,” Sanderson said of Zub. “If you want to be more offensive and it doesn’t go your way he’s there, always to back you up. I love playing with him.”
Zub isn’t the only blueliner the Senators are missing. Thomas Chabot is out four to six weeks with a fracture in his right hand. Erik Brannstrom is also recovering from a concussion he sustained against the Islanders, and there’s no timeline for his return.
“To see Branny and Chabby go down in the game before, it was a wakeup call for us,” Sanderson said. “[Pittsburgh] was a big game for us, the last game of October. We had to flip the switch. It was kind of a must-win situation for us and we brought it that night.”
November hasn’t been kind to Ottawa in recent years. In 2022, they went 4-9-1, and had just a single win in 2021, going 1-14-2. This year’s team is focused on having a much better result.
“I’ve heard about it quite a bit just from Brady and Chabby,” said Sanderson, who has only experienced the slump of November 2022. “Coming into camp, Brady emphasized how big this start is for us and it’s going to jump-start our year. You don’t want to play catch up the rest of the year.”
The club has also dealt with major injuries in past Novembers. In 2021, centres Shane Pinto and Colin White had season-ending shoulder injuries. Last season, Josh Norris also had a shoulder injury that eventually required surgery.
Smith acknowledged the bad luck surrounding the health of the players in these early months of the season but reiterated the need to start finding more wins after starting the season 4-4.
“We wanted to be .500 or better in October. We’re .500 – we wanted more than that, clearly,” Smith said. “If you look at all the numbers combined we should maybe be 5-3 but we’re not. Now November becomes huge.”
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The Senators announced the hiring of Matt Nichol as the director of player health and performance on Tuesday. Nichol was previously the head of strength and conditioning with the Toronto Maple Leafs from 2002-09. Nichol also co-founded the supplement company BioSteel Sports Nutrition.
“When it comes to days off, work load, injury prevention, all these things have plagued us,” Smith said. “In the last four to five years we’ve had a lot of injuries, and there’s some, there’s nothing you can do about it – broken hands and bones. A lot of bad luck. [Nichol] is going to be able to help us so that we don’t lose as many bad games. He’s going to help prevent some injuries.”
Smith is hoping the addition of Nichol will also enable the Senators to better monitor the workload being placed on players to keep them as fresh as possible during a long season.
“I think some of the old-school mentality is: You’re mad at your team – you lost, or you won – and you just go out and you punish them. At the end of the day, to me it's gotta be whatever gets you ready for the next game. And I know one thing. When your team has legs and your team is sharp, you have a chance to win every night.”
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Lines at Tuesday’s skate:
Tkachuk-Stutzle-Giroux
Batherson-Norris-Tarasenko
Kubalik-Greig-Joseph
Kelly-Chartier-Kastelic
Sanderson-Zub
Chychrun-Bernard-Docker
Kleven-Hamonic
Korpisalo
Forsberg
PP1
Sanderson
Norris-Batherson-Stutzle
Tkachuk
PP2
Chychrun
Tarasenko-Kubalik-Giroux
Greig