Senators' Talbot ahead of recovery timeline
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Ottawa Senators goaltender Cam Talbot faced shots and looked good Thursday morning as he continues to work his way back from an upper-body injury, according to TSN's Claire Hanna.
While Talbot was not officially participating in practice, head coach D.J. Smith told Hanna he was ahead of schedule in his return.
“I was told today he was able to go out and face some shots. He got in there today and his conditioning and the effort he’s put in to keep himself in shape over this will probably get him back in that net sooner than expected. We’ll see how he felt out there today. Practice again tomorrow. See where he’s at. Certainly ahead of the timeline," Smith said.
When asked what the updated timeline for Talbot's season debut was, Smith wasn't ready to commit to anything yet.
“I don’t know. They told me he could practice today. It’s clearly ahead of where I had envisioned which was late November-ish originally. We’re starting to think a lot sooner than that -- we’ll know more in the next couple of days.”
Talbot was given a five-to-seven week recovery timeline for his upper-body injury earlier this month.
The 35-year-old was acquired from the Minnesota Wild in the off-season in exchange for goaltender Filip Gustavsson. He made 49 starts for the Wild last season, posting a 32-23-4 record with a .911 save percentage and 2.76 goals-against-average.
Talbot began his NHL career with the New York Rangers as a free agent, where he played two seasons (2013-14) before time with the Edmonton Oilers (2015-18), Philadelphia Flyers (2018), Calgary Flames (2019) and Wild (2020-21).
In 396 games played, Tablot has a career record of 201-142-34 with 27 shutouts, a .915 save percentage and a 2.63 GAA.
Return of Forsberg?
Anton Forsberg missed Monday's game against the Dallas Stars with an undisclosed injury. Magnus Hellberg started in his place, stopping 29 of 31 shots as the Sens went on to win 4-2.
Hanna reports Forsberg was back at the team's skate Thursday and was in the starter's net. Here are the rest of the expected line combinations for Thursday's game against the Minnesota Wild at Canadian Tire Centre:
Tkachuk-Stutzle-Batherson
DeBrincat-Brassard-Giroux
Motte-Joseph-Pinto
Kelly-Kastelic-Watson
Chabot - Zub
Sanderson - Hamonic
Brannstrom - Zaitsev
Forsberg