Skip to content

Sens' Anderson to sit out second straight with injury; Condon to start against Chicago

Sens' Anderson to sit out second straight with injury

OTTAWA — The Ottawa Senators will be without No. 1 netminder Craig Anderson for at least another game.

Senators coach Guy Boucher said Anderson would sit out his second straight game Thursday night against the Chicago Blackhawks with an undisclosed ailment. Mike Condon will start once more after shining Tuesday evening with 35 stops in a 2-1 overtime defeat against the Tampa Bay Lightning which snapped Ottawa's six-game win streak.

"(Anderson) won't be a long-term thing," Boucher said on Wednesday afternoon.

Anderson is listed as a day-to-day, skating and taking shots ahead of practice. He suffered the injury at the end of a Saturday night victory over the Colorado Avalanche — one in which he earned his 147th win with the Senators, setting a franchise record.

Anderson has a .930 save percentage in 30 starts this season, mostly missing time throughout the year to be with his ailing wife Nicholle. 

Condon was plucked from Pittsburgh for a fifth round pick in November to help fill the void and he was superb against the Lightning, especially during a third period which saw Ottawa surrender 12 shots and a number of quality scoring chances.

Boucher was pleased with his team's first two periods versus Tampa, but not the final 20 minutes when Condon was forced to shine.

"And I think it was less about work ethic than it was about being impatient," he said. "The guys wanted the goal, they wanted to get that extra goal so we wanted it too much so we got three, four guys below the hash-marks, we got caught and we gave them the odd-man rushes that we don't usually give and Condon had to stand on his head which he did.

"It's one of those days that Condon had to do more usual and that's what I wasn't happy about."

Condon has stopped 74-of-78 shots in his last two outings and has a .914 save percentage in 37 games this season.

Ottawa enters Thursday's action one point back of the Montreal Canadiens for the Atlantic division lead with two games in hand.

Jonas Siegel, The Canadian Press