Sens head coach D.J. Smith met with the media this morning following the team's skate and shared that he'll roll with the same line-up as Tuesday's game in Tampa. The Sens had a good bounce back game against the Lightning and battled back from a two-goal deficit to force overtime before ultimately dropping a 4-3 decision in OT.
Smith also provided a few injury updates as well and it appears that Scott Sabourin is nearing a return to action in the near future. Sabourin hasn't played since leaving the team's Nov. 2nd game in Boston after a massive collision in the neutral zone but has recently resumed skating with the team in a regular contact jersey, the first sign he could be back in the line-up sooner than later.
"He's close," said Smith about Sabourin's recovery. "We'll get him some contact today and some contact tomorrow and then we'll make a decision on if we can get him in before Christmas or not."
On the back end, Nikita Zaitsev is likely out of action until the calendar flips to 2020 after suffering an injury blocking a shot against the Blue Jackets last weekend. Smith shared that the Sens will use their 6 healthy defencemen tonight but a recall could be made at some point this week to add some depth with Belleville just down the road.
"It's tough to say...it could be 2-4 weeks," the coach said about Zaitsev's recovery timeline. "We're not going to put him in a spot where he can't come back and be effective so we'd like it to be the shorter route but in saying that, you never know how guys feel or their status when they start to skate. We'll know a little bit more after two weeks probably."
