{"id":598119,"date":"2026-04-10T15:27:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T15:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/598119\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T15:27:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T15:27:07","slug":"chabot-makes-early-return-from-injury-for-surging-senators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/598119\/","title":{"rendered":"Chabot makes early return from injury for surging Senators"},"content":{"rendered":"

OTTAWA \u2014 Two weeks to the day after undergoing surgery for a broken arm Thomas Chabot<\/a> was back in the Ottawa Senators<\/a> lineup on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

Chabot, the longest serving member of the Senators, suffered the fracture March 23 during a game against the New York Rangers<\/a> and underwent surgery a few days later.<\/p>\n

The Senators defenceman didn\u2019t even get eased back into action after missing eight games.<\/p>\n

Chabot played 21:16 in Ottawa\u2019s 5-1 win over the Florida Panthers<\/a> on Thursday. Only Jake Sanderson<\/a> and Artem Zub<\/a> had more ice time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a light night for Chabby,\u201d joked Senators head coach Travis Green<\/a>. \u201cChabby\u2019s a warrior, man. He\u2019s a tough customer, plays through a lot and happy to have him back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chabot was expected to miss four to eight weeks, and if the Senators weren\u2019t in such a tight race for the playoffs, he may have taken longer. But he had been testing things out the last five days and felt confident he could play to his normal level.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you miss some time you just try to get back to the pace and try to keep things as simple as could be,\u201d he said. \u201cI thought it went well, and obviously, tomorrow\u2019s another day and hopefully we take a step with a big game coming Saturday here.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his absence, the Senators went 4-3-1 and managed to keep themselves in playoff contention with Ottawa holding the second and final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. The last thing Chabot wanted was to disrupt what the team had achieved of late.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike I said (Thursday) morning it sucks to be out and you don\u2019t feel like you\u2019re part of it,\u201d Chabot said. \u201cSo, being back out there and playing it was great, it was a good feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n

In less than a week, the Senators bolstered their blueline after being decimated by injuries. Sanderson returned last Saturday and now with Chabot back in the lineup, the Senators are getting healthy when it counts most.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s huge for us,\u201d said Sanderson of Chabot\u2019s return. \u201cA guy who plays a lot of minutes, and (Thursday) it really didn\u2019t look like he missed a step, breaking out the puck really well, keeping things simple, getting pucks to the net, and that\u2019s what he\u2019s best at. We definitely missed him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ottawa\u2019s blueline is also contributing offensively of late.<\/p>\n

In the past two games, defencemen have combined for four of Ottawa\u2019s 11 goals.<\/p>\n

Sanderson, with a pair, and Jordan Spence<\/a> each scored against Tampa and Zub added one Thursday.<\/p>\n

Zub is known for his strong defensive play and having him contribute offensively is a bonus at this crucial time.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s so good,\u201d said Sanderson, who primarily plays with Zub. \u201cYou saw it every single night. Somebody I lean on and count on every game. He\u2019s so dialed in at practice, works so hard and to see him get rewarded is awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

With three games remaining, Ottawa will need everyone to continue elevating their game.<\/p>\n

Ottawa holds a three-point lead on both the Detroit Red Wings<\/a> (41-29-9) and New York Islanders<\/a> (43-31-5). The Senators play the Islanders Saturday afternoon in what could be their biggest game of the season.<\/p>\n

They then play the New Jersey Devils<\/a> Sunday before wrapping up the regular season at home against the Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Senators also have the potential to catch the Boston Bruins<\/a> (43-26-10), who have a two-point lead over Ottawa and hold the first wild-card spot, setting up a wild finish to the regular season.<\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 10, 2026.<\/p>\n

Lisa Wallace, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OTTAWA \u2014 Two weeks to the day after undergoing surgery for a broken arm Thomas Chabot was back…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-598119","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}