Injury Trouble Rears Its Ugly Head Again for Ottawa Senators Centre Josh Norris

After practicing in Boston today, in preparation for another huge game against the Bruins on Thursday night, Ottawa Senators head coach Travis Green updated the media on the status of his second-line centre Josh Norris.

Not ideal. It's the fourth straight season the injury bug has come for Norris.

While the Senators metaphorically fell flat on their face on Tuesday night in a 5-0 loss to the Rangers, Norris did it for real during a bizarre moment in the game.

While skating in the neutral zone alongside Rangers forward Vincent Trocheck, Norris suddenly veered left and tripped over Trocheck's stick. For whatever reason, Norris wasn't able to get his arms down fast enough to fully brace for impact and he fell hard to the ice, chin-first. Presumably, he didn't realize he was as badly tangled up with Trocheck's stick as he was.

Related: The One Move The Ottawa Senators Must Avoid In Their Crowded Goaltending Room

Norris left the game but returned a short time later, apparently in good spirits. But the gear then came off for good during the second intermission and that was it for his night. The team said the move was precautionary, which seems to be the new default company line immediately following every injury, whether it's big or small.

The hope is that Norris' oft-injured shoulder wasn't involved. What we know from Green is that Norris is "out, probably for the weekend," which would mean the games against Boston, Toronto and Utah.

The follow-up for details was even less descriptive.

TSN 1200's Gord Wilson: "Upper body?
Green: "Yes."

Though it's rarely classified as such, an upper body could also include a concussion. Last we checked, the head is as "upper" as a body part gets.

But when Artem Zub and Michael Amadio had their concussions, Green specifically told the media they were concussions. If Norris has one, the Sens would probably be even more likely to identify it that way so that fans don't worry about the shoulder.

You can see in the first replay below from TSN's broadcast that, while his chin hits the ice, so did the top of his left shoulder, on an extremely awkward landing.

Norris has had three left shoulder surgeries since 2019, two of them coming in the past two seasons, which saw him play a grand total of 58 games. The Senators brought him along slowly for this season, allowing him to play in just one exhibition game last fall.

Since then, Norris hasn't missed a single regular season game. He stands as Ottawa's top goal scorer with 17, and he's fifth in team scoring with 27 points in 47 games.

Norris is signed to an 8 year, $63,600,000 contract which still has five and a half more seasons on it. Upon signing, he had just had a 55 point season and the Sens were gambling he'd be able to improve on that. But thanks to injuries, he still hasn't eclipsed the 30 point mark in a season.

Now that a precautionary measure has turned into a three-game absence, who knows what next week will bring? Sens fans have their fingers crossed that this latest setback is only a minor one, and in a perfect world, it doesn't involve that bad shoulder at all.

Got a comment on this story? Join the Hockey News' fan forum, the Ottawa Senators Roundtable. And be sure to bookmark The Hockey News Ottawa for more stories like this.

Related: Ottawa Senators Goalie Linus Ullmark May Soon Have To Reconsider His Plans To Play In The 4 Nations Face-off

Related: Former Ottawa Senator Forward Announces His Retirement After 11 NHL Seasons

Related: Former Ottawa Senators GM Pierre Dorion Lands a New Job