The struggling Ottawa Senators will try to halt losing skid at home

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The Ottawa Senators executed their backup plan Friday night.

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Coming off their fifth straight loss in a 5-3 decision to the Buffalo Sabres Thursday to wrap up a five-game road trip, the Senators were back on the ice at the Canadian Tire Centre on Friday to prepare for a game Saturday against the San Jose Sharks at 4 p.m.

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Centre Josh Norris, who didn’t suit up Thursday in Buffalo because of an undisclosed ailment after he had an awkward fall in a collision with Elias Lindholm on Tuesday in Calgary, will miss his second straight game. He was at the rink Friday meeting with the club’s doctors.

To make matters worse, the Senators will be without goaltender Anton Forsberg for an undisclosed amount of time after he left the team’s game against the Sabres because of a right groin injury he suffered trying to make a stop in the first period.

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The 31-year-old Forsberg was sent for an MRI test on Friday to examine the ailment. He had to be carried off the ice and won’t be back anytime soon, but Steve Staios, the club’s president of hockey operations and general manager, was waiting for word on further testing.

There’s no question that Joonas Korpisalo will make the start against the Sharks, but the Senators were waiting for an update on Forsberg’s status before they recalled Mads Sogaard from their American Hockey League affiliate in Belleville Friday night.

Doctors likely determined Forsberg is going to miss at least 10 games and at least 24 days. The Senators placed him on long-term injury reserve to get his $2.75 million US salary off the books.

If Forsberg wasn’t going to be out long, and groin injuries are often tough to predict, then the club would have had to sign a goaltender to a professional tryout to dress as the backup Saturday. Tye Austin of the Carleton Ravens skated with the Senators on Friday.

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Senators interim coach Jacques Martin likely would have preferred to give the players the day off after an 11-day road trip, but they went for a quick skate to prepare for what’s being referred to in some circles as the Basement Bowl between two of the league’s worst teams.

Though everybody predicted the Sharks would be in last place in the league coming into the season, the Senators woke up Friday sitting ranked No. 30 overall in the league, 19 points out of the final wildcard spot in the East and last in the conference.

That’s a long way from the club that everybody thought would be competing for a playoff spot as the Senators close in on the midway point of the season, but here we are. The club has lost 12 of its last 15 games and has gone pointless in two straight five-game road trips.

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Martin knew this job would be tough when head coach D.J. Smith was fired on Dec. 18, but has a 3-9-0 record in 12 games with Hockey Hall of Fame captain Daniel Alfredsson working as an assistant.

Trying to get details and structure in the club’s game has been a tall order.

“It’s a process,” Martin said. “I’m seeing some positive signs in the last three games. I’ve told the team, we’ve done some good things and we’re building with each game. I feel that we’ve beaten ourselves with the last three games.

“We’ve had lapses where other teams have taken advantage of them (not playing well on special teams). We’ve just got to work at it on a daily basis. We’ve just got to be more persistent at playing the game like we played in the third period (in Buffalo). We need to have that emotion and that engagement that’s required to be successful.”

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The rink will be jammed for this one. The club said Friday that there are fewer than 400 tickets available so the atmosphere should be good. The club needs to find a way to get back on track because there isn’t one player in the Senators’ dressing room that has done their job.

Centre Tim Stutzle might be the player struggling the most through all of this and he had a long chat with Martin at the bench after the skate wrapped up. Stutzle has one goal in the club’s last 15 games.

“You know they care a lot,” Martin said. “I think sometimes you want to take it upon yourself to be the difference maker and sometime when you try to do too much. It’s not the most effective way. Sometimes less is better.

“I think he’s working through that and I like the direction that he’s going.”

bgarrioch@postmedia.com

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