Yahoo Sports Ottawa Senators Defenceman Suffers What Appears To Be a Serious Leg Injury At Practice On Monday Morning
Ottawa Senators practice on Monday morning couldn't have gone much worse for defenceman Jacob Bernard-Docker.
After the injury on Friday night to Travis Hamonic (out 2-4 weeks), Bernard-Docker had every reason to hope he'd return to the lineup in a full-time role for the foreseeable future. Instead, the Senators called up Nikolas Matinpalo from Belleville for Monday morning's practice.
Head coach Travis Green immediately paired Matinpalo with Tyler Kleven in the bottom pairing, suggesting that JBD may be tracking to be in the press box again when the Sens play on Tuesday night in Detroit.
But that wasn't nearly the worst of it for Bernard-Docker.
During a drill at practice, rotating in as the seventh defenceman, JBD was retreating into his own end with Zack Ostapchuk attacking up the middle, looking for a pass from his right winger (it looked like Noah Gregor). With Ostapchuk focused on the puck, which got chipped to the end boards, he seemed to lose track of Bernard-Docker to his left and kept up his high pace.
By the time Ostapchuk realized JBD had moved out of his blind spot and was now in his lane, he had no time to stop. You can see what happened in the second video below.
— Gab Lafrance (@Gab_Lafrance) January 6, 2025
It was a troubling scene, with Bernard-Docker going off in obvious pain, unable to put any weight on his left leg at all. He was helped off the ice by Brady Tkachuk and Ostapchuk, whose concern for his teammate was immediately obvious.
The Senators will update JBD's status soon. But it would appear that Matinpalo is now going to get a good long run of NHL duty. The 6-foot-3, 211-pounder from Finland has appeared in just five NHL games since first signing with the Sens in the summer of 2023.
Matinpalo cleared waivers and was assigned to Belleville to start this season.
In other roster moves, the Senators also recalled forward Jan Jenik from the B-Sens. He skated at practice as the club's 13th forward. Hamonic (lower body) was placed on injured reserve Monday.
With JBD's injury, right-shot Belleville defenceman Maxence Guenette now seems like a good candidate for his first recall of the season.
This story comes from The Hockey News Ottawa website. For more Senators coverage all season long, check out THN Ottawa. Recommended articles include:
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