Senators d-man Dylan Demelo out 3-4 weeks with broken finger

Dylan Demelo injured his hand in the game against the Canadiens, which the Senators ultimately lost 3-2 in OT. He is now out long-term with a broken finger.

What a shame this is for him, as he was having a very good season so far. The 26-year old d-man had six assists in 32 games, with a sparkling +7 +/- on a very bad team.

He is a stabilizing force on the sens back end, not allowing many chances for the opposing team with his strong play in his own zone.

Although he hasn’t posted great offensive numbers in his career, with his career high in points set last year with only 22 points. In his last five games he was slowly trending up while playing over 20 minutes per game.

He has four assists in those five games, and is a +4.

The Senators defence this year is surprisingly one of their main strengths. Which certainly wasn’t the case in past seasons. It’s a product of head coach D.J. Smith’s smart systems for the team, which the players follow very closely.

With Thomas Chabot leading the charge on offence from the back end, and guys like Ron Hainsey, Dylan Demelo, Mark Borowiecki and Nikita Zaitsev providing great defensive structure.

Although the team is struggling to score goals, it isn’t from lack of defence and chances coming from the defence.

According to the plan at the start of the season there would’ve been those four players I mentioned earlier as the defensive defenceman. Thomas Chabot would be the main offensive defenceman, and rookie Erik Brannstrom would be a secondary scoring player.

That wasn’t the case as Brannstrom didn’t put up significant offensive numbers. So there is effectively only one offensively minded defenceman on the roster.

So that’s why the Senators should place Max Lajoie in the lineup in a significant role, maybe in the Top-4. He’s an offensively minded defenceman who played well last year and should be given another chance in the NHL.