Coach Travis Green is confident that lower-body injury to Ottawa's top defenceman isn't serious

The Ottawa Senators will have to soldier on without Jake Sanderson for the foreseeable future.

The Senators will be without their top defenceman on Monday night against the Boston Bruins at TD Garden and he’s out indefinitely after leaving the club’s 3-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday with an undisclosed lower-body ailment.

Sanderson played only 4:29 on six shifts against the Leafs.

The club recalled Jorian Donovan from its American Hockey League affiliate in Belleville on Monday to serve as its extra defenceman. The club will close out this three-game trip against the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena and will be without Sanderson again.

Veteran Cameron Crotty, 27, who was signed as an unrestricted free agent on July 1, 2025, and suited up for six games last season, was set to take Sanderson’s spot in the lineup against the Bruins.

Coach Travis Green confirmed to reporters in Boston a report from the Ottawa Citizen on Monday that Sanderson was sent back to Ottawa for further testing for the ailment.

“He got some testing done. I would call it not as serious as we had hoped it wouldn’t be, and I don’t think it’s going to be, but he definitely won’t play the rest of this trip,” Green said.

If Steve Staios, the club’s president of hockey operations and general manager, wants to bring in some depth, there were a couple of defencemen on waivers on Monday.

The Rangers waived defenceman Matthew Robertson after he was scratched on Monday night, while the Calgary Flames made Brayden Pachal available. The 27-year-old Pachal has suited up for 177 games in his career, while Robertson played 72 games with New York last season.

Losing Sanderson is a big hit to this blue line, but you can be certain he won’t be back until whatever is nagging him is 100% healthy.

While Sanderson didn’t suit up in any exhibition games until he faced the Habs, Green told reporters last week that the ailment Sanderson left with against the Habs was different from the one that hampered him during the first week of camp.

Sanderson skated three straight days before being given the green light to return for the club’s season opener.

In the first period against the Leafs, Sanderson aggravated a lower-body injury he suffered in the club’s final pre-season game a week ago against the Montreal Canadiens.

He got caught up along the boards with Toronto winger Nick Paul in the first period against the Leafs and stayed on the bench for the remainder of the period, but he took only four shifts.

The Senators were forced to finish the game with five blueliners, and captain Thomas Chabot played more than 27 minutes because the club is already without Artem Zub, who is still nursing a knee injury he suffered in Round 1 of the playoffs in April.

Ottawa has been through this before. The Senators used 13 blueliners last season, so this is a hurdle the players have become accustomed to facing.

“It’s the same approach as we had last season,” defenceman Jordan Spence said before facing the Bruins. “Sandy is a great player. It’s a big loss, but we’re trying to win games here and everybody has to do their job.

“We’re pretty focused on that tonight.”

Spence was paired with Chabot, while Tyler Kleven skated with rookie Carter Yakemchuk. The third pairing was made up of the reliable Nikolas Matinpalo and Crotty. Crotty played in the playoffs last spring when the Senators were shorthanded against the Carolina Hurricanes.

“It’s another opportunity to get better,” Crotty said. “The experience last year was great. It gave me some confidence. I’m just going to try to continue that.”