- Artem Zub is out for Senators Game 2 with an undisclosed injury
- He left Game 1 in the second period after checking Carolina’s Seth Jarvis
- Read below for how Travis Green is shuffling Ottawa’s defense without its top-pair right-shot
Ottawa’s blue line just got a lot thinner.
Senators defenseman Artem Zub did not dress for Game 2 of the Eastern Conference First Round against the Carolina Hurricanes on Monday at Lenovo Center, per Shawn P. Roarke of NHL.com. The 30-year-old is dealing with an undisclosed injury he picked up in Game 1 on Saturday.
Zub got hurt early in the second period after he checked Carolina forward Seth Jarvis. He finished the 2-0 loss with just 7:44 of ice time, nothing close to his usual workload.
Head coach Travis Green made it clear on Sunday that losing his top-pair right-shot hurts.
“It’s a big loss when he goes out,” Green said. “Someone’s got to step up to play those minutes against the top lines.”
Lassi Thomson draws in on the right side and makes his Stanley Cup Playoff debut. The 2019 first-round pick had three assists and a plus-3 rating in 11 regular-season games. He lines up on the third pair with Dennis Gilbert.
Nikolas Matinpalo gets the bigger bump, sliding up to skate alongside Jake Sanderson on the top pair. Sanderson led Ottawa with 27:25 of ice time in Game 1 after his usual partner went down.
Tyler Kleven was also scratched Monday. He skated without a non-contact jersey at morning skate but wasn’t cleared in time.
Zub had a career year for Ottawa, racking up 30 points (five goals, 25 assists) with a plus-22 rating while averaging 20:48 across 81 games. Replacing that kind of production on the fly is a tall order, and Green has already leaned on 13 different defensemen this season, more than he can remember in any of his previous stops.
“Obviously, our pairs have been jumbled up a bit,” Sanderson said. “I think that is kind of the beauty of our team. We are all very close on the back end. We know each other’s games pretty well.”
The Senators trail the series 1-0 after Frederik Andersen’s 22-save shutout in Game 1. If Ottawa wants to even the series before heading home, the remade back end needs to hold up against Carolina’s forecheck.
