Greig Exits Tuesday. Ottawa Keeps Adding to the List.

Ridly Greig left Tuesday's game early with a strain, the latest name added to what has become a running tally for this franchise heading into the playoffs. He had been one of the quieter contributors to Ottawa's late push — 21 points in 44 games, steady minutes at center — and losing him, even briefly, matters to a team that does not have a lot of margin in its forward depth.

The broader picture, as I wrote Tuesday, is that the official injury report still shows only Blake Montgomery on IR. The actual picture includes Eklund out for an extended stretch with his ankle, Greig's status now uncertain, and a left wing situation that was already thin before any of this started. Burakovsky's activation last week helped, but the group Ottawa is skating into the postseason with looks nothing like what was on paper in September.

What keeps this from tipping into crisis is that Stutzle and Batherson have both been available and productive, and Sanderson appears close to a return on the blue line after his recent absence. The structure of this team — built around a few players carrying a disproportionate share — has held because those players have held. Greig's strain is a problem. It is not a catastrophe. But Ottawa has now spent most of October finding out exactly how little cushion exists when anything goes sideways.