{"id":546281,"date":"2026-04-07T22:09:42","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T22:09:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/546281\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T22:09:42","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T22:09:42","slug":"senators-thomas-chabot-could-return-ahead-of-schedule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/546281\/","title":{"rendered":"Senators’ Thomas Chabot Could Return Ahead Of Schedule"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Ottawa Senators\u2019 injury situation turned from bad to worse when Thomas Chabot<\/a> was sidelined with a broken arm six games before Jake Sanderson<\/a> returned from his own month-long absence. Chabot underwent surgery to address the injury and was expected to be out six-to-eight weeks, which would have placed his return in the Eastern Conference Finals if the Senators were still playing. Roughly two weeks later, it appears Chabot\u2019s recovery is going better than expected. He has already returned to practice and could return ahead of his original window, head coach Travis Green<\/a> told TSN\u2019s Bruce Garrioch<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ottawa\u2019s blue-line has faced a long string of injuries since the start of March. The Senators were forced to lean on their few healthy veterans \u2013 Tyler Kleven<\/a>, Jordan Spence<\/a>, and Artem Zub<\/a> \u2013 in the few games where both Chabot and Sanderson were out. They didn\u2019t leave that plan unscathed, with Kleven sustaining a potential season-ending injury<\/a> of his own. Sanderson has averaged over 25 minutes of ice time in his two games since returning to the lineup, similar to the deployment Chabot carried before his injury.<\/p>\n

Ottawa has fought a war of attrition in their attempt to seal an Eastern Conference Wild Card. Battling through injuries, the Senators have managed the sixth-most wins in the NHL (11) since March 1st. That comes largely thanks to the offense\u2019s scoring ability, with Ottawa also ranked eighth in total goals in that span (61). Even then, the Senators have totaled a measly 10-11-1 record in games without Chabot this season. His absence leaves a major hole in Ottawa\u2019s top-four. He has 31 points in 55 games, second-most on the Senators\u2019 blue-line behind Sanderson\u2019s 49 points. He has also kept up his strong play away from the puck while usually facing opponents\u2019 top players.<\/p>\n

Adding Chabot back into the lineup will reinstill the Senators\u2019 one-two punch on defense, no matter when it happens. While news of a quick recovery is an exciting boost, it seems Ottawa may still have to finish the season down a top defender. The Senators currently hold onto the second Wild Card spot with 90 points and five games left. They sit one point ahead of the New York Islanders, with a game in hand, and two points ahead of the Detroit Red Wings and Columbus Blue Jackets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ottawa Senators\u2019 injury situation turned from bad to worse when Thomas Chabot was sidelined with a broken…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5104],"tags":[5,402,4,72,25,5157,73,832],"class_list":{"0":"post-546281","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ottawa-senators","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-injury","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-ottawa","12":"tag-ottawa-senators","13":"tag-ottawasenators","14":"tag-senators","15":"tag-thomas-chabot"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116365728700327010","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}