This Is the Roster Ottawa Is Taking In

The injury report says one player — Blake Montgomery, still on IR. The actual picture is messier than that. William Eklund is out for an extended period with an ankle injury. Cam Crotty was placed on IR Sunday. Andre Burakovsky only just made his season debut against Nashville on Saturday, which I noted then was good news wrapped around a pretty significant caveat: a player returning from a long absence is not the same thing as a healthy player. Ottawa recalled defenceman Jorian Donovan to patch the blue line. This is the roster.

The forward depth chart has been reshuffled enough times this month that the depth chart itself is almost a formality. Eklund, who Ottawa acquired from San Jose and who had been one of the more productive wings in the lineup, is simply gone for now. The left wing situation in particular has been thin all season — Jaxon Cover has been the nominal starter there and has produced next to nothing. That hole doesn't get smaller in the playoffs.

What Ottawa does have is Tim Stutzle at a point per game, Drake Batherson healthy and logging real minutes, Jake Sanderson back on the blue line after his precautionary exit earlier this month, and a three-game winning streak that is at least real. The Senators went 6-4 over their last ten games and finished 50-43. That's a legitimate playoff team by the numbers.

The question heading into the first round isn't whether Ottawa belongs — they clinched, they won three straight, they earned the seed. The question is whether the roster that shows up can sustain pressure across a full series when the margin for error on the forward group is this thin. Stutzle and Batherson have carried heavier loads before. They're about to carry one again.