Smith confirms the worst for Brannstrom, Sens forced to make several call ups.

The Ottawa Senators are going through something of a rough time, and unfortunately it would seem as though the hockey gods have not chosen to shine their mercy upon them.

The Senators are heading into a weekend of back to back games with a roster that is in shambles. No fewer than 9 members of the Senators roster have been placed on the National Hockey League's Covid protocol list, decimating the Senators' regular lineup and forcing the team to scramble for replacements as the virus ravages through their locker room. There was some thought that the league might look to delay games over the weekend due to the sheer number of cases in the Senators organization, but we now know that there will be no relief forthcoming from the NHL.

As a result on Saturday morning the Senators called up 3 more players from the American Hockey League, making their lineup more closely resemble the Belleville Senators rather than the Ottawa Senators, and announced that Erik Brannstrom will also be out for the foreseeable future.

First, the Sens announced that forward Andrew Agozzino, defenseman Jacob Bernard-Docker and defenseman Maxence Guenette have all been called up to the main roster. The expectation is that they will all suit up for the Senators, given the amount of players that have been forced onto the sidelines, and if that is indeed the case it would mean an NHL debut for Guenette who is a former Senators 7th round pick(187th overall) at the 2019 NHL Entry Draft.

The big news of the day however comes courtesy of Senators head coach DJ Smith, who confirmed the worst when it came injured defenseman Erik Brannstrom. There were reports that Brannstrom had broken his hand and Smith was able to confirm that this was indeed the case, adding that Brannstrom had broken it while blocking a shot on the ice.

As a result of the injury it now sounds like the Senators will be without Brannstrom for as long as 2 full months, on top of having to deal with the Covid outbreak in their locker room.