Chabot exits the game with an apparent wrist issue, potentially forcing more defensive shuffles.
A lot of things have happened in the past week to make Senators fans believe the dark clouds may have started to lift.
The team has played extremely well over the past seven days, winning their last three games against some top opponents, while also welcoming back starting goalie Linus Ullmark, who was excellent in his return to action on Saturday.
But for the Senators, the injury bug always seems to be looming.
Just as they get Ullmark back, now there's concern again about the status of defenseman Thomas Chabot, who left Saturday's game for what the club described as precautionary reasons. Early in the third period, he appeared to jam up his right hand or wrist while defending Devils' forward Maxim Tsyplakov.
TV cameras caught Chabot looking highly uncomfortable on the bench as head athletic therapist Dom Nicoletta evaluated the injury, very gently testing the mobility of his right wrist. It wasn't long before the defenseman headed down the tunnel, done for the night.
That's the same wrist that Chabot had trouble with for several seasons before having it surgically repaired. At the end of the 2022-23 season, Chabot admitted the wrist had a torn ligament and a cracked bone. But it wasn't until May of 2024 that he finally had surgery.
At the team's golf tournament that fall, he said the wrist was 100 percent and wished he'd had the surgery earlier.
But back in November, Chabot missed 12 games with what the team described as an upper-body injury after being hit along the boards in a game against the Dallas Stars. At a glance, it looked like maybe a rib injury from colliding with the hard edge at the top of the boards at the Stars' bench, but it's certainly possible on review that his right hand got jammed up there as well.
Chabot's absence, if there is any at all, would force the Senators into the less-than-ideal position of using a righty again on the left side and moving a bottom-pairing D into a bigger role with tougher assignments.
With the group playing its best hockey of the season, and with so little room for error, having to try and backfill for Chabot is the last thing anyone in the organization wants right now.
Steve Warne
The Hockey News - Ottawa