Speaking from the Senators' alumni charity golf tournament from the Canadian Golf and Country Club, Ottawa Senators general manager Steve Staios updated the status of Nick Jensen.
The Senators' defenceman had corrective surgery in New York on Monday, May 19, to repair an undisclosed lower-body injury. Although he refused to get into the specifics of the injury or the procedure involved, Staios acknowledged that it was the hip that was ailing Jensen.
"He's been doing very well," the general manager acknowledged. "I mean, it is a period of time that he'll be out for. Not sure (of the timeline to return), knowing Nick and the way he's going to attack his rehab, can he expedite his return to play? Most likely with him.
"I don't really have a timeline on it, but certainly (his injury was) something we're hoping that he could get through. But, once (the doctors) revealed exactly what it was, we knew it was something that needed to get taken care of. Full credit to him for playing through what he did and to play at the level he did."
It was a tale of two seasons for Jensen.
Through the first three months of the season, the pairing of Thomas Chabot and Jensen was unquestionably the team's best.
From the changing of the calendar year on January 1, however, the script flipped. In the final 33 games that the duo played together, the Senators only generated 48.40 percent of the shots (CF%), 44.64 percent of the shots on goal (SF%), 46.67 percent of the goals (GF%), and 44.35 percent of the expected goals (xGF%) per Natural Stat Trick.
Not surprisingly, the timing of the pair's struggles coincided with Jensen's deteriorating hip.
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In his end-of-the-season media availability, the defenceman admitted that there was never a specific triggering event that caused his injury.
"There wasn't like a one day where it just happened," Jensen expounded. "It was kind of something that slowly progressed over time. And obviously it was, it was good at times, and then sometimes it was not so good.
"That goes back to how intense all the games are in this league, and it's tough on our bodies. It's hard to recover sometimes."
Now, Jensen will spend the offseason recovering from his surgery, and the organization is guardedly obfuscating when he may return. It represents a stark contrast from the Winnipeg Jets' decision to reveal that their captain, Adam Lowry, had surgery to resurface his hip and would be out for the next five to six months.
The Senators' hierarchy prefers to play things close. That is their prerogative, but it will not dispel concerns that this recovery process may disrupt Jensen's typical offseason training and preparation, which could adversely impact his readiness for the start of the season.
If the veteran defenceman underwent a resurfacing procedure similar to the aforementioned Lowry and requires five or six months, that would put Jensen in a position where he may not be available to play until the middle of October or November. It may even take longer for him to recover and resemble the player he was during the first three months of this season, assuming he can get back and perform at his pre-injury levels.
Such a timeline would help explain why Staios is keeping Jensen's status mum.
With the pressures to maintain the Senators' competitiveness, the general manager will have to exhaust the free agent and trade markets for a prospective fit to improve the right defence position and insulate against the chance that Jensen starts the season on the shelf.
Graeme Nichols
The Hockey News - Ottawa
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