One of the Ottawa Senators key reasons for turnaround in 2024-25 is in the news today. Right-shot defenceman Nick Jensen had been battling a lower-body injury for most of the second half of the campaign. Today, about three weeks after the Sens season ended, he had surgery to repair the injury. There’s no exact word on recovery time. However, we will add that Jensen was hopeful he’d be ready for training camp. That was when asked about it during the year-end media availabilities.
Nick Jensen Has Surgery to Fix Lower-Body Injury
For Sen fans, they really hope that Jensen can return to form. The way he helped elevate the game of his partner Thomas Chabot, was truly a breath of fresh air for the Senators. As a pairing in 2024-25, Jensen and Chabot nearly played 1000 minutes together. Their expected goal percentage doesn’t jump off the page at 49.1%. Now, if you consider that they play against top matchups and that often together, that does seem like a good amount of, at least, breaking even for the club. In contrast, if you combine that with their actual goal percentage of nearly 56%, tied for tops on the team, you begin to see a more clearer picture. That positive dislocation of the two numbers for the partnership, shows excellent efficiency. This is what people rave about when stating how good the Jensen acquisition was for Ottawa.
But as we seen, the injury definitely hampered Nick Jensen by the time the playoffs hit. Moreover, he wasn’t even able to take morning skates with the club. You could see it in his play, as he could get spun around, and not be able to always keep up with the pace of the offensive attack. However, for anyone doubting Jensen’s abilities and positive impact to the Sens organization, the fact he needed and then had the surgery should keep them quiet. Look for him to have a big bounce back in 2025-26.
You may recall, Jensen was originally picked up from the Washington Capitals, with Jakob Chychrun going the other way. With Washington having fought for the Presidents’ Trophy with the eventual winner Winnipeg Jets, the trade worked out for them, too.
Main Photo Credit: John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images
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