The Ottawa Senators are bracing for the worst news on Brady Tkachuk.
The team’s captain travelled to New York City to meet with hand surgeon Dr. Robert Hotchkiss on Wednesday to get a second opinion on whether the hand/wrist injury he suffered against the Nashville Predators in Monday’s 4-1 loss at the Canadian Tire Centre will require a procedure.
Ottawa coach Travis Green told reporters on Tuesday, before the club left for Buffalo to face the Sabres on Wednesday that Tkachuk would be out “four weeks plus. But we don’t know exactly.”
The Senators are hoping for the best, but the expectation is that they could be without Tkachuk for two months. The indications are that the meeting with Hotchkiss is to confirm that Tkachuk does need to go under the knife after the initial diagnosis from the medical staff in Ottawa.
Ottawa owner Michael Andlauer told reporters at the National Hockey League’s board of governors meeting in New York on Wednesday that Tkachuk was meeting with the surgeon and the club would have more information on Thursday.
It would be more surprising if Tkachuk didn’t undergo surgery after meeting and that would take place immediately to begin the road to recovery as quickly as possible.
Several league executives told Postmedia on Wednesday that if Tkachuk does have a procedure, the timeline for recovery would be approximately six to eight weeks, depending on the extent of the issue.
If that’s the case, it wouldn’t affect Tkachuk’s participation with Team USA in the Winter Olympics in Italy in February.
We’ve been told that this is a ligament issue and not a broken bone.
The start of the season has been an uphill battle and the challenge won’t get any easier without one of the club’s best players.
“We’re going to miss him. You don’t replace guys like that, but we’ve always had a next man up mentality,” Green said Wednesday in Buffalo. “Teams are going to have injuries and that’s part of the NHL.”
The Senators have had issues scoring goals, especially at 5-on-5, and losing Tkachuk will make their task even more difficult.
Green had to shuffle his deck against the Sabres. Getting winger Drake Batherson back against Buffalo from a pulled muscle that forced him to miss the first three games of the season will be helpful, but he’ll need some time to get up to speed.
The expectation was that Batherson would start the game with Dylan Cozens and David Perron. Batherson and Cozens had good chemistry when the latter arrived from Buffalo at the trade deadline last March.
Tkachuk’s absence will put pressure on top centre Tim Stutzle — who has posted an assist in the club’s first three games — to step up to put points on the board. An area of strength for the Senators is depth down the middle with Cozens, Shane Pinto and veteran Lars Eller.
Stutzle has pretty much played with Tkachuk on the left side since arriving in Ottawa to start the 2021-22 campaign. The next couple of months will require Stutzle to build chemistry with someone else, including winger Fabian Zetterlund, who was moved to the left side against the Sabres.
Zetterlund went into the game versus Buffalo pointless in the first three games. He is one of the players being counted on to provide offence this season after signing a three-year, $12.825-million US deal in the off-season and he has to start burying his opportunities consistently.
He has two goals and three points in 29 games with the Senators. He scored 24 goals with the Sharks in 2023-24. Let’s remember, he likely faced a lot of backup goalies, got a lot of ice time and was on a non-playoff team. This is a different kind of pressure with Tkachuk out.
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Make no mistake, Zetterlund isn’t alone. Michael Amadio was on the right side of Stutzle and Zetterlund.
“(Amadio) is a player we can move up and down the lineup,” Green said.
This is an opportunity for veteran forwards Claude Giroux and Perron to earn more playing time. Nobody was certain about their roles coming into camp, but Tkachuk’s absence frees up valuable ice time. Rugged winger Ridly Greig should also be given more of a chance to play.
“We’re going to have to try to win games 2-1 or 3-1. He’s a big part of our team, and it’s tough to lose him,” Perron said. “It’s got to be a little bit of a next-man-up mentality and we can’t worry about who’s playing and who’s not, we’ve just got to go out and get the job done.”
Steve Staios, the club’s president of hockey operations and general manager, has been scouring the market to see if he could bring in some scoring help before Tkachuk was injured, but is hopeful the answers can come from within.