If losing Pascal Leclaire, and Mike Fisher wasn't enough - that's just their injured list for this week - the Senators also announced today that they will be without the services of their physical and emotional spark plug, and penalty minutes leader, Chris Neil for up to two weeks. Neil is sidelined as a result of a knee-on-knee collision with New Jersey's Andrew Peters in the first period of last night's 3-1 road loss to the Devils. Neil injured his knee on the play, and immediately left the game, and did not return.
While Neil won't be the biggest loss on the scoresheet - he has four goals so far this year - it will mean the loss of a major portion of the team's grit, and physical presence; factors already lacking in the absence of Mike Fisher, and Anton Volchenkov. Neil and the team are still awaiting the results of tests taken on the knee today, and will hope the news is good - with Anton Volchenkov, Shean Donovan, Mike Fisher, and Pascal Leclaire already out of the Sens' lineup, the Ottawa roster can ill afford another subtraction. Some help is on the way tonight, as Alexei Kovalev will return for tonight's home game against Columbus (7:30pm ET - TSN TV; Team 1200 Radio; Tickets still available)
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