Ottawa Senators make concerning move on Sunday morning.
All signs point to the Senators being down one of their regular forwards on Sunday.
The Ottawa Senators have raised some eyebrows with one of their moves on Sunday morning, leaving many to speculate about potential injuries on the roster.
First, what we know for certain is that the Senators have made the move to add forward Angus Crookshank to their man roster, calling him up from their American Hockey League affiliate, the Belleville Senators. Crookshank has had a very good season in Belleville with 22 goals and 18 assists for a total of 40 points over 60 AHL games this season, and there's little doubt about the fact that he has earned another look at the National Hockey League level.
It seems likely that this move has been made with the intent of having Crookshank in the lineup later today when the Senators will face off against the Pittsburgh Penguins. That in turn would indicate that there will be a forward coming out of the lineup for the Senators, and the questions now are who will be coming out from the Sens forward group and why?
Some have speculated that the team may be looking to rest captain Brady Tkachuk ahead of the Stanley Cup playoffs, but there's another reason to suspect that Tkachuk could be the man coming out of the lineup today. Tkachuk was the victim of a pretty nasty blow to the head during the course of Saturday's game between the Senators and Columbus Blue Jackets after Blue Jackets veteran forward Sean Monahan appeared to accidentally cross-check Tkachuk in the head, sending him crashing down to the ice in the process.
No official word yet from either Senators head coach Travis Green or the team itself, but stay tuned as I will keep you up to date here as soon as the announcement is made official.
