The injury bug has struck again in the nation’s capital. The Ottawa Senators will be without the services of forward Josh Norris for the foreseeable future after the centreman suffered an upper body injury in the 2nd period of Tuesday’s contest against Nashville.
Norris, was bumped awkwardly into the back of the net while chasing a puck and was in visible pain on the ice. Senators fans waited with bated breath as the 24 year old got up and could be seen favouring his left shoulder.
It was just last February that Norris underwent a surgical procedure on that same shoulder which cost him all but 8 contests in 2022-23. Prior to that, the Oxford, MI native had a previous surgical procedure done on his shoulder in 2019 after sustaining an injury at the World Junior Championships.
Interim head coach Jacques Martin confirmed that the upper body injury would keep Norris sidelined for an extended period of time. “It’s just unfortunate because I thought Josh was playing his best hockey of the season for us,” Martin told reporters. “I think since he’s been teamed with Drake Batherson I thought that line has been very effective. It had good speed and they were doing a good job getting some production as well, so that’s the unfortunate part.”
With Norris out, Ridley Greig is expected to take on additional responsibilities at the centre position. The 21 year old has recorded 21 points (9G, 12A) in 47 games with Ottawa this year, and has had the opportunity to play up and down the lineup during his time in the NHL.
Other injury updates provided by the team included the revelation that Travis Hamonic is considered week-to-week with an injury and will not make the trip out west when the team takes part in their annual California swing through Anaheim, LA and San Jose.
On a positive note, it appears as though Ottawa will be getting some reinforcements ahead of Friday’s contest with the Coyotes. Both Thomas Chabot and Tim Stutzle are expected to suit up after taking Thursday’s practice off for a “maintenance day”. Meanwhile blue liner Artem Zub will also return to the lineup after missing the last 3 games, something that bodes well for Ottawa’s backend and Jake Sanderson in particular.
With just over a week remaining until the March 8th NHL trade deadline, Ottawa has a variety of options ahead for management to mull over. Few would be surprised to see the team attempt to make a big swing at the deadline to shake up their core, while it also wouldn’t be shocking to see them take a patient approach given how much of the “Andlauer era” has played out thus far.
Nevertheless, Ottawa is a team mired in what appears to be another lost season. At 25-29-3, the Sens once again find themselves in the basement of the Atlantic division, and well out of playoff contention. But with 2 first rounders, and the chance to potentially acquire a 3rd if the team opts to part ways with pending UFA Vladimir Tarasenko, brighter days could soon be on the horizon for an Ottawa team that’s been underperforming for several seasons now.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner
Photo: All-Pro Reels. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.