The Senators’ blueline pairings have stayed remarkably consistent this year, avoiding the juggling that the forward lines have gone through. The only thing forcing Travis Green’s hand to change them now are injuries.
Neither Jake Sanderson, deemed week-to-week with an upper-body injury, nor Nick Jensen, deemed day-to-day with a lower-body injury, skated at practice on Friday with the team.
In their absence, Thomas Chabot skated with Artem Zub — as he did in the past two games — and Dennis Gilbert was inserted into the lineup, paired with Nikolas Matinpalo. Tyler Kleven and Jordan Spence remained together.
“I thought they all played well [on Wednesday], no complaints, they’ve just got to keep doing their job,” said Green after practice.
“We’ve kept our pairings pretty tight all year, I think we’ve obviously liked the Sandy-Zub pairing for a long time now. Jens and Chabby are comfortable playing [together]. Klev and Spence have played well, that’s been a big reason why we’ve kept the pairs together. When a guy like Sandy goes out, someone else has to go in that role. I think it’s been a while since Chabby and Zub have played together, but they’re both top defencemen, they’ll have no problem with that.”
In Sanderson’s absence, Thomas Chabot saw a season-high 28:32 of ice time. The last time Chabot played that much was during a 2-0 loss to the Bruins on Jan. 23, 2025, when Sanderson was also injured.
“He’s played well,” said Green. “Not surprising, he’s a good player. We’re not asking him to do anything more, his minutes might go up a little bit, but he’s quite capable of playing in any role.”
Sanderson hasn’t resumed skating after leaving Saturday’s win in Seattle in pain after being checked into the ice by Brandon Montour. “He’s improving, day-to-day — he’s not day-to-day with his injury, but as far as I know he’s progressing well,” said Green, who also said his injury won’t require surgery.
Jensen, meanwhile, was injured in Wednesday’s loss to Montreal, said Green. His status for the weekend’s games is up in the air. Gilbert hasn’t played since being recalled from Belleville on Monday, but has appeared in one game with the Senators this season.
