Tough news out of Ottawa this morning, as Sens GM Bryan Murray announced that forward Clarke MacArthur and d-man Marc Methot have both been sidelined with concussions.
MacArthur hasn’t played since getting knocked out of last Wednesday’s 7-3 win over Columbus. Methot suffered his concussion in a 2-0 loss to Pittsburgh, and sat out this weekend’s shootout defeat to Nashville.
The losses are going to hurt the Sens, no question.
MacArthur has been a good offensive contributor, with 91 points over the last two seasons, and the Sens got a taste of what life without him was like last season, as he missed 20 games (also with a concussion).
Without him in the lineup, the Sens have been forced to juggle their forward lines. That’s been an issue for MacArthur’s frequent linemate, Bobby Ryan, who’s now trying to find chemistry with Mika Zibanejad and Milan Michalek.
As for Methot, he also missed extensive time to injury last season -- nearly half the year with a back injury -- but came back and performed well enough to score a four-year, $19.6 million extension in February.
Through five games this year, Methot was averaging over 20 minutes per night.