Ottawa Senators will have soldier on without captain Brady Tkachuk

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The Ottawa Senators and Florida Panthers will face off on Saturday at the Canadian Tire Centre, but there will be no “Tkachuk Cup” this time.

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Senators captain Brady Tkachuk will miss his third straight game with an unspecified upper-body injury, and his brother, Panthers winger Matthew Tkachuk, is still recovering from a groin injury while playing for Team USA in the 4 Nations Face-Off in February.

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It’s the first time since Matthew went to Florida before the 2022-23 campaign that the two haven’t faced off because of injuries, and the injury to Brady comes as the Senators try to sew up a National Hockey League playoff spot for the first time in eight years.

His absence has caused lots of angst among Ottawa fans and they’ll be a little more concerned with this absence. For what it’s worth, he’s listed as day-to-day and by all accounts we do believe that’s the case with whatever the ailment is.

Ottawa head coach Travis Green said he didn’t have a firm update on Tkachuk on Friday morning, who was injured after taking a hit from Ryan Graves of the Pittsburgh Penguins in a 1-0 loss last Sunday.

“I was hoping he would skate today, but he’s not going to,” Green said as the Senators dispensed with practice and held an off-ice workout. “That’s about all I can say about it.”

The expectation is Tkachuk won’t play against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday, either, as the Senators wrap up their four-game homestand.

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Tkachuk wasn’t able to suit up for the 5-2 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday or a 2-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday.

Having him miss some time may not be the worst-case scenario, though. He was already nursing a hip he injured while playing for Team USA at the 4 Nations, so this is an opportunity to get him as close to 100 per cent as he can be heading into the post-season.

The contest against the Lightning was the fourth Tkachuk had missed this season, but it was the first time the Senators had won without him. He isn’t just the club’s leading goal scorer with 29 this season, he also leads in power-play goals with 14.

Plus, Tkachuk is ranked No. 12 in the NHL with 227 hits in 71 games.

“It’s hard because he’s a big heart and soul guy for our team. He’s our captain,” said centre Shane Pinto, who broke a 10-game drought by scoring against the Lightning. “Different guys had to step up, and I thought everybody bought in.

“It was a team effort and we found a way.”

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Saturday’s matchup with the Panthers will be a difficult test for the Senators.

This will be the third, and final, game between them this season. Ottawa scored a 3-1 victory over Florida in the home opener on Oct. 10 and lost 5-1 in Sunrise on Feb. 8.

“They skate well, they’ve got lots of skill up front and their back end is pretty darn dynamic,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said following his team’s skate at the Bell Sensplex on Friday. “They’re coming of age as a team.

“They’ve drafted high for a bunch of years, then they paid the price of that development time, and now you’ve got players on the back end just starting to come into the prime and some young guys up top as well.”

Not only are the Panthers without Matthew Tkachuk, they also won’t have captain Aleksander Barkov for this one. He suffered an upper-body injury against the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday, but did finish that game.

Barkov didn’t suit up against the host Toronto Maple Leafs in a 3-2 loss on Wednesday night, though, and Maurice said he wouldn’t play this weekend.

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“It’s not serious, but he’s not playing this weekend,” Maurice said.

The Senators could move closer to securing a playoff spot with a victory over the Panthers. They have a 99 per cent chance of making the postseason for the first time since 2017, but nothing is official yet.

The good news is that the Senators have six of their final seven games at home, and that has been an advantage this season, as 22 of their 40 victories have come at the Canadian Tire Centre.

Green is happy to be home for this stretch. The Senators paid a price earlier in the schedule with a lengthy road trip because of the IIHF world junior championship in Ottawa over the holiday season.

“We’ve definitely got a better home record than road record, which is the case a lot of times in the NHL,” Green said. “That stretch (around the world junior) was long. We didn’t have a lot of time in Ottawa, and, even when we did play here, we didn’t for long.

“Now we get to put two feet on the ground and we’re home for a while and we love playing at home.”

bgarrioch@postmedia.com

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