The Sens have employed a “next man up” mentality all season, one that will be pushed to another level on Tuesday night in Detroit.
With injuries to Thomas Chabot (right arm) and Lassi Thomson (lower-body) forcing the team to finish Monday’s win in New York with just four defencemen, Ottawa recalled 20-year-old Carter Yakemchuk and 21-year-old Jorian Donovan from Belleville on Tuesday morning to reinforce a depleted blueline, which was already without Nick Jensen, Dennis Gilbert, and Jake Sanderson.
“Get ready to win,” said Travis Green postgame when asked how the defence corps will respond in Detroit. “We’ll get two guys up. It’s a big game, we’ll be ready.”
The Senators enter the game with a chance to move into a playoff position for the first time since November (contingent on both a win and an Islanders regulation loss against Chicago).
The team has taken things game-by-game over the past few months, handling adversity and compiling a 14-3-2 record in their last 19 games to claw back into striking distance of that final wild card spot in the East.
“That’s all you can do right now, is just take it day-by-day,” said Warren Foegele after the game, who scored his fifth goal as a Sen in the win.
Despite Monday’s adversity in New York, the Sens still managed to hold the Rangers to just 10 shots on goal, the lowest in franchise history.
“I just think we’re playing fast, when you’re on our toes, everyone as a group, there’s really not much room out there,” said Foegele. “We seem to create turnovers and then we spend time in the O-zone, so I thought I liked our effort in that regard.”
On the blueline, Jordan Spence finished the game with a career-high 26:44 of time on ice in the win.
“Like I said before with Sandy getting out, everyone has to step up as a D-core,” said Spence after the game.
“I don’t think it’s just the D, it’s a five-man unit in the defensive zone, I think we’re all clicking as one team, and you can really see that with the past five, 10 games that we’ve played, we’ve played really well. Especially in the defensive zone, but even in the offensive zone as well, we’re creating a lot of chances, we’re cycling down low, we’re having a lot of chances.
“We have what, 13 more games, 12 more games left, we’re in a playoff push so hopefully we can keep on doing what we can.”
