At the Rink: Senators at Panthers

SUNRISE, Fla. -- The Ottawa Senators will be without forward Bobby Ryan and defenseman Cody Ceci when they face the Florida Panthers at BB&T Center on Tuesday (7:30 p.m. ET; RDS2, TSN5, FS-F).

Ryan, who is tied for second on the Senators (17-12-5) with 32 points, left the a 5-2 loss against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday during the second period after aggravating a finger injury he sustained Dec. 12 against the Montreal Canadiens.

He had two goals and two assists in three games prior to Sunday.

Ceci sustained an upper-body injury in the first period against the Lightning and did not return.

Ottawa has lost five of its past eight games (3-5-0).

Senators coach Dave Cameron said he had no information regarding how long either player could be out of the lineup.

Forward Ryan Dzingel will make his NHL debut in place of Ryan. A seventh-round pick (No. 204) in the 2011 NHL Draft was recalled from Binghamton of the American Hockey League on Monday. He leads Binghamton with 22 points in 26 games.

"He's obviously one of the best players down there," Cameron said. "That's why he's on the list to be called up. So now it's a chance to show us what he can do at the National Hockey League level. It's like all young guys that come up for me; I'll be interested to see how he plays without the puck. That'll determine his ice time."

Dzingel got the call about his promotion after he had flown to Chicago to be with his family for the holidays.

"It was good to see my family for a couple of hours and to get a little Florida Christmas is a lot different for me," Dzingel said. "It was a great Christmas present for my family. I know they've been through a lot and they've sacrificed a lot for me so it's a pretty good present for them."

Dzingel said he texted his parents Tuesday morning after being told he'd be in the lineup but he wasn't sure they'd be able to get a flight to South Florida in time to watch his NHL debut in person.

Veteran Jared Cowen will replace Ceci on defense after being a healthy scratch the past two games.

The Panthers (18-12-4) will look for their fifth consecutive victory, which would match their season-high winning streak.

Florida, which is 10-3-0 in its past 13 games, will have center Derek MacKenzie and defenseman Alex Petrovic back in the lineup.

MacKenzie missed four games because of a lower-body injury. Petrovic was sidelined for 12 games because of a lower-body injury.

"Tonight is a huge one for us," MacKenzie said. "I don't think we're going to look any further than that. But I can tell you going into the Christmas break if we can find a way to come up with two points tonight we're going to feel like we picked up where we left off last year. This team has now got to focus on what's ahead and not just be happy with being in seventh or eighth place [in the conference]. Now we're in that period where we need to prove to ourselves that we're a really good team. We've taken a step in that direction and now is when we've really got to dig in because teams know that we've been playing good hockey [and] we're going to see everyone's best every night."

Here are the projected lines:

SENATORS

Mike Hoffman - Mika Zibanejad - Alex Chiasson

Zack Smith - Kyle Turris - Mark Stone

Dave Dziurzynski - Jean-Gabriel Pageau - Curtis Lazar

Shane Prince - Ryan Dzingel - Chris Neil

Marc Methot - Erik Karlsson

Jared Cowen - Patrick Wiercioch

Mark Borowiecki - Chris Wideman

Craig Anderson

Andrew Hammond

Injured: Bobby Ryan (finger), Cody Ceci (upper body), Chris Phillips (back), Clarke MacArthur (concussion), Milan Michalek (finger)

Scratched: None

PANTHERS

Jonathan Huberdeau - Aleksander Barkov - Jaromir Jagr

Jussi Jokinen - Vincent Trocheck - Reilly Smith

Brandon Pirri - Derek MacKenzie - Logan Shaw

Quinton Howden - Corban Knight - Shawn Thornton

Brian Campbell - Erik Gudbranson

Dmitry Kulikov - Aaron Ekblad

Willie Mitchell - Alex Petrovic

Roberto Luongo

Al Montoya

Injured: Nick Bjugstad (upper body), Steven Kampfer (lower body)

Scratched: Connor Brickley

Status report: Cameron said he wasn’t sure whether Dzingel would play center or on the wing. ... Chiasson will replace Ryan on a line with Hoffman and Zibanejad. "I think it's a nice opportunity for myself to get things going," said Chiasson, who has five points in 34 games. "I feel like my game has been good this year; obviously I'd like to contribute a little more on the score sheet. You see a lot of the same guys being there for us every night. I think in this League for a team to be really successful you need depth scoring." ... Bjugstad, who has missed the past 11 games because of migraines, skated by himself Tuesday and Panthers coach Gerard Gallant said he was day-to-day.

Who's hot: Karlsson has three goals and two assists during a four-game point streak. ... Anderson has a 12-4-1 record with a 2.05 goals-against average, a .936 save percentage and three shutouts in 18 games against the Panthers, for whom he played from 2006-09. ... Reilly Smith has five goals in the past seven games. ... Barkov has one goal and four assists in the past four games.