Ottawa Senators Announce Veteran Winger Will Miss 6-8 Weeks With Knee Injury

steve warne

Wed, Jan 29, 2025, 5:11 p.m.·2 min read

The Ottawa Senators announced on Wednesday that winger Nick Cousins will miss 6-8 weeks with a knee injury. Cousins was injured in a knee-on-knee collision on Saturday night during a 2-0 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Leafs rookie Jacob Quillan, playing in his first NHL game, was carrying the puck through the neutral zone, and Cousins had him lined up for a body check.

Quillan saw him coming at the last second and instinctively moved his upper body sharply to his right to successfully avoid Cousins' shoulder. But his legs were still in Cousins' lane and they collided knee on knee.

Cousins took some flak online with suggestions he intentionally went after the kid's knee, but based on the wild cartwheel he did, not to mention the injury, he appeared to have no idea that lower body contact was coming.

Nick Cousins collides knee on knee with Jacob Quillan who is playing in his 1st NHL game

And his family in the stands could barely watch 😰 pic.twitter.com/TUUbqHXAka
— Gino Hard (@GinoHard_) January 26, 2025

Though he stayed in the game, Quillan was also injured on the play, though not seriously. He eventually left Saturday's game and may miss games this week.

With Cole Reinhardt returning to Belleville today, Matthew Highmore sticks with the club as Cousins' replacement on the roster. Highmore skated on a fourth line today with Zack Ostapchuk and Adam Gaudette.

After winning a Cup with the Florida Panthers last spring, Cousins has been a solid, inexpensive, bottom-six option for the Senators. He plays the energetic agitator role and has 13 points in 47 games. That's well on pace to outscore players like Parker Kelly (18 pts) and he's already ahead of Mark Kastelic (10, two former players who held fourth line roles here last season.

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