Senators’ Noah Gregor leaves game with lower-body injury

The Ottawa Senators have announced that winger Noah Gregor has left Thursday’s game against the Buffalo Sabres with a lower-body injury.

Gregor sustained the injury late in the second period of the game when he took a spill into the boards. He eventually needed help getting to the dressing room, and the Senators announced at the start of the third period that he would not be returning to the game.

There are currently no confirmed details on the specifics of the injury, how severe it is, and how long Gregor is expected to be out of the lineup.

Gregor left the game with just one shot attempt and a rebound created on his stat sheet in 5:48 of ice time, with the Senators losing 4-0 at the time of his departure.

With Gregor out of the game, Adam Gaudette has been the current replacement on the fourth line alongside Zack Ostapchuk and Cole Reinhardt, although the Sens will likely just swap players in and out of that spot in the limited time the fourth line sees in the third period.

Gregor has had a relatively unproductive season with the Sens, with just 4 goals and 2 assists for 6 points in 34 games on the year. That’s a 14-point pace in an 82-game season, although Gregor has never played more than 63 in an NHL season.

The Senators didn’t have any forwards healthy scratched for Thursday’s game, largely due to the injuries they’re already dealing with up front to David Perron and Michael Amadio. The only healthy scratch for the game was defenseman Maxence Guenette, so if Gregor misses a significant amount of time, the Sens will either need to deploy 11 forwards and 7 defensemen or call someone up from their AHL affiliate, the Belleville Senators, for Saturday’s game against the Pittsburgh Penguins.