Thomas Chabot out 1-2 weeks for the Senators

It started Saturday night in Philly, when the captain went to the room and the word came down that he was done.

Bruce Garrioch

@SunGarrioch

Thomas Chabot won't return tonight #Sens

Chabot collided with Trevor Zegras in the 1st period and looked like he was favouring his right wrist area afterward, according to TSN. He kept going for a while, logging 16 shifts and 12:03 of ice time, then left after the 2nd period. Ottawa lost 3-1. After the game Green would only call it an upper-body injury, and he added that the Sens had 4 or 5 guys who didn't have it that night. It was not a fun bus ride.

Monday brought the timeline, and it came with a catch. Green said he didn't want to be quoted on it, which is about as reliable as a coach saying the injury is day-to-day. He also said this wasn't a new injury at all.

Claire Hanna

@clahanna

Travis Green says he doesn't want to be quoted on this but Thomas Chabot will probably be out a week to two weeks with an upper body injury. It was also an injury Chabot was dealing with "It might have happened the game before. It happened early, finished the game." #Sens

That's the part worth paying attention to. Green said it "might have happened the game before," and Chabot finished that game. That means the captain was already hurt going into Philly, and the Zegras collision seems to have made it worse. Hockey players play through everything, but a wrist-area problem on a defenseman who's supposed to move the puck is the kind of thing that sneaks up on you. A week or two is the good outcome here. The bad one is a guy toughing it out for another month at 70 percent.

The timing stings. Chabot is 29, has 79 goals and 339 points in 578 games, all with Ottawa, and this is his first season wearing the C since Brady Tkachuk left. Despite all that, the Sens are 6-3-0 and sitting 3rd in the Atlantic. The blue line has been thin all month too. Jake Sanderson got hurt 4:29 into the season opener against the Leafs on October 3 and has missed 8 games since. Now, finally, there's some good news on that front.

Bruce Garrioch

@SunGarrioch

Jake Sanderson out here this AM. Expected to play on Wednesday #Sens t.co/wkCByA3tLL

Sanderson was out for Monday's practice and is lined up to play Wednesday. Getting him back as Chabot goes out turns a disaster into a swap. He's 24 and coming off a 14-goal, 54-point season in which he averaged 24:50 a night, so he can soak up a lot of the minutes the captain leaves behind. The real problem is that Ottawa is still 1 top-pair guy short of where it wants to be.

Wednesday's opponent is Florida, which means Brady Tkachuk is coming back to Ottawa to face his old team. It was always going to be a loud night at the Canadian Tire Centre. Now the old captain shows up while the new one sits in the press box with his wrist wrapped, and Ottawa has to hope Sanderson can carry the blue line until Chabot is back sometime in the next couple of weeks.