Josh Norris’ return gives Ottawa Senators nice shot in the arm

In his first game since January 2023, Ottawa Senators’ forward Josh Norris made his presence known. He scored twice, fuelling an impressive 6-1 win over the Washington Capitals.

After being acquired from the San Jose Sharks in the Erik Karlsson trade in 2018, Norris has been among the top prospects in the Senators’ organization. Across his first two full seasons in the NHL, Norris scored 52 goals and 38 assists for 90 points through 122 games. However, he only played eight games in 2022-23 after dealing with a shoulder injury.

But after Wednesday’s two-goal performance, there’s plenty of hope in Ottawa for the Sens to make their first playoff appearance since losing in seven games to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 2016-17 Eastern Conference Finals.

On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk discuss Norris’ return to the Sens’ lineup and how their playoff chances look four games into the season.

Tyler Yaremchuk: After missing the season’s first three games, Norris returns to the lineup with a bang, popping home two goals in the Senators’ blowout win against the Washington Capitals. Frank, that shoulder looked just fine when he was slinging them home.

Frank Seravalli: This is such a, pardon the pun, “shot in the arm” for the Ottawa Senators. He completely changes the look of this team, especially down the middle. Oh and by the way, can they just get Shane Pinto signed already? You can go Tim Stutzle, Norris and then Pinto? That’s a pretty damn good centre formation for the next eight years.

When you look at the way this team has gotten off to a 3-1-0 start, they’ve given themselves a chance to make it to the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Their season the last few years has been over by mid-November. They started 6-12-1 last season, you can’t recover from that.

Tyler Yaremchuk: Heading into the year, when we were talking about the up-and-coming teams, I was in the wait-and-see camp with the Senators. Four games in, seven players are producing at a point-per-game or better, and suddenly, I look at their lines differently. This Sens team might actually be pretty good.

You can watch the full show here…