The Sens will dress a top-heavy roster for Sunday's Preseason Opener against Toronto.
The Ottawa Senators' 2023 NHL preseason opener figures to be a special one for goalie Anton Forsberg. As the Sens host the Toronto Maple Leafs Sunday afternoon (2 pm, Sportsnet One), Forsberg is scheduled to see his first game action since being stretchered off the ice seven months ago.
Just 28 games into Forsberg's first serious NHL contract, he tore the MCLs in both knees. The freak injury occurred in a game against Edmonton back in February. Forsberg had fallen onto his back during a goal-mouth scramble with his legs still in the butterfly position. Before he could recover, Oiler forward Zack Hyman was nudged from behind by Travis Hamonic and Hyman fell right on top of Forsberg.
That was the end of the goalie's season but, fast forward seven months, Sens head coach D.J. Smith says Forsberg will play all 60 minutes on Sunday afternoon.
"Forsy's been off for a long time," Smith told the media. "And I think he's looked forward to getting in there. We'll see how he feels. If he doesn't feel great, we'll shorten it, but the plan right now is that he'd play the whole game.
Smith says Mads Sogaard will start Monday (7 pm on Sportsnet) against Toronto and Joonas Korpisalo will play the third game vs Montreal on Wednesday (RDS, TSN5)
Smith has opted to dress a very top-heavy 23-man roster for Sunday. There's one elite forward line with Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stutzle and Claude Giroux, and an excellent pairing on the back end with Artem Zub and Jake Sanderson.
But things fall off steeply after that with most of the other players already earmarked for either fourth-line roles or Belleville.
The Sens brass will get their first serious look at a pair of European free agents the Senators signed in the off-season: Czech winger Jiri Smejkal and Finnish defenceman Nikolas Matinpalo. Former New York Islander Josh Bailey, in Ottawa on a PTO, will also dress for the Sens.