After Eklund setback, Senators need their supporting cast to deliver

The answers will have to come from within for the Ottawa Senators.

The Ottawa Citizen reported Saturday that the Senators could be without winger William Eklund for more than two months because of the ankle injury he suffered against the Philadelphia Flyers last Thursday.

He missed his second straight game Monday against the New Jersey Devils at Prudential Center and has been seen moving around the Canadian Tire Centre on a scooter to keep his left leg elevated.

That means the Senators will spend a significant amount of time without a top-six forward they acquired from the San Jose Sharks just hours after the club traded captain Brady Tkachuk to the Florida Panthers.

When Steve Staios, the club’s president of hockey operations and general manager, convinced the Sharks to part with Eklund in a deal that included the No. 9 overall pick in the draft, he believed the winger had the speed and skill to complement Tim Stutzle.

The Senators were about to find out how that combination would work when Eklund, who turned 24 on Monday, took an awkward tumble into the boards after a hit from Philadelphia’s Simon Benoit and had to be helped off the ice in the first period.

Not only was it a crushing blow for Eklund, who was starting to look comfortable in Ottawa, it was also a setback for a team that could ill afford to lose another top-six forward.

The Senators finished 10th in NHL scoring last season, yet there has been a constant debate on social media about where this team’s goals will come from.

After Eklund was injured and the Citizen reported the timeline for his recovery, the immediate reaction was that Staios would need to acquire help up front, especially with the club carrying a 4-1-0 record into Monday’s game against New Jersey.

“It’s hard to make a trade,” a league executive said on the weekend. “There isn’t a lot out there, especially right now. And the guys who are available are carrying big contracts, and there’s a reason those teams want to move on from them.”

Teams are still trying to determine exactly what they have and what they need. The 20-game mark is generally considered the point when general managers take a hard look at their rosters and decide whether they’re contenders or pretenders.

Make no mistake, the Senators believe they’re contenders. The challenge is finding a way to overcome the injuries they’ve already faced.

That’s the conundrum Staios and the hockey operations staff face. They could surrender assets to acquire another forward, but given the club’s strong start, do they really need to make that move right now?

Maybe not.

The responsibility falls on the current forward group to pick up the slack. Tim Stutzle, Drake Batherson, Michael Amadio, Shane Pinto, Nick Cousins and Claude Giroux have all enjoyed strong starts.

But if the Senators are going to maintain their pace, they’ll need more from players such as Dylan Cozens, Ridly Greig, Warren Foegele, Fabian Zetterlund and Andre Burakovsky.

Foegele started the season on the top line for the first three games before sliding to the fourth unit Thursday. He was back alongside Stutzle and Batherson against the Devils.

Burakovsky, acquired from the Chicago Blackhawks in the off-season, made his Senators debut Saturday. He missed the first four games because of an undisclosed injury suffered in the club’s final pre-season game against the Montreal Canadiens on Sept. 29.

The Senators are hopeful Burakovsky, who is in the final year of a contract that carries a $5.5-million cap hit, can rediscover his scoring touch. He skated with Cozens and Greig against New Jersey.

Cozens is off to a slow start, but there’s a sense he’ll come around. Greig, meanwhile, was suspended for the first two games of the season and is still working his way up to speed. He’s a nuisance to play against, and that’s a big part of his value. The offence should follow.

The hope was that Zetterlund, who scored 17 goals last season, would develop chemistry with Eklund because the two Swedes are close friends. Now, that experiment will have to wait until at least mid-December before the Senators can see whether the pairing works.

The public push for Staios to make a trade is understandable.

But the Senators spent the summer talking about improved depth. In camp, they were pleased with the internal competition. They believe they are a different team, and they certainly looked like it in the first five games.

Eklund’s injury is a significant loss. But if the Senators truly believe they can be a contender, then the answer can’t be waiting for Staios to rescue them with a trade.