Photo credit: James Guillory-Imagn Images
Artem Zub left Game 1 in Carolina on Saturday night with what looked like a knee or leg injury, and the Senators have a real problem on their hands.
The Ottawa defenseman hasn't returned since delivering a hit on Seth Jarvis. Travis Green now opens his first playoff run short a top-four blue liner.
Bad timing does not begin to cover it.
Ottawa walked into PNC Arena with a thin back end already. Nick Jensen is on IR with a knee issue and listed as out for the season.
Tyler Kleven was already carrying a day-to-day upper-body tag before puck drop. That's two bodies gone and a third limping off in Game 1.
You want a visual from the sequence? Zub finishes his check on Jarvis, skates gingerly, then drifts straight down the tunnel without looking back. No stick slam. No glance at the bench. Just gone.
Injuries have left Travis Green’s blue line hanging on
Zub logged 81 games this season with 30 points and a plus-22 rating. Losing that kind of steady, shutdown presence against a Hurricanes team that forechecks like it hates you is a nightmare scenario.
Jake Sanderson and Thomas Chabot can eat minutes. Nobody questions that. But who slots in on the right side next to them if Zub can't go Monday?
Jordan Spence and Nikolas Matinpalo are the names left standing. Spence has been fine in a sheltered role. Matinpalo has 50 games of NHL experience and a -1 on the year.
Carolina does not do sheltered roles. Rod Brind'Amour's group finished 53-22-7 with 113 points and the second-best record in the league. They hunt mistakes on the forecheck for a living.
Ottawa went 1-2 against the Hurricanes in the regular season, with the lone win a 6-3 result at home on April 5. Different beast in the postseason.
Game 2 is Monday night, also in Raleigh. If Zub is out, Green has roughly 48 hours to figure out who absorbs second-pair minutes against Aho, Jarvis, and Svechnikov.
There's also the Jarvis angle hanging over all of this. Clean finish, ugly consequence, and the kind of moment that sets a tone for the rest of a series. Carolina will remember.
The Senators are making their first playoff appearance in this group's window. Losing your right-side stabilizer in period one of game one is the kind of hit that either breaks a team or hardens it.
We're about to find out which.
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Havoc breaks loose between Senators and Hurricanes just 3 seconds into Game One
Havoc breaks loose between Senators and Hurricanes just 3 seconds into Game One