Kuba Injures Leg On First Day Of Training Camp



UPDATE: TSN is reporting that Filip Kuba will miss 5-6 weeks with a broken right leg following the results of his x-rays. While he will miss camp and the beginning of the regular season with this injury, he should be back by November following that timetable and that's not a drastic amount of time for the Senators to be without him.

ORIGINAL: It's never a good sign when players start going down on the very first day of training camp. For the Ottawa Senators, it's especially not great that it happened just 15 minutes into their camp to a 33-year old defenseman coming off back surgery over the summer.

On Friday, Filip Kuba suffered a leg injury after skating into a rut on the ice surface. The severity of the injury not know, but he was expected to be taken for x-rays Saturday afternoon.

Aside from losing their second best offensive defenseman, the Senators face the loss of a player that does not need any more injuries on his record. Kuba had back surgery this offseason as a result of an injury that forced him to miss the final 11 regular season and all six postseason games for Ottawa last year. Prior to that injury, a number of other ailments forced Kuba to miss games in spurts throughout the year, leaving him to skate just 53 games total during the 2010-11 campaign in his second season as a Senator.

Head coach Cory Clouston is prepared to go forward as necessary if the x-rays reveal some negative news.

"We had to play a lot without him last year, and obviously we may have to start the season without him again. I guess if you are going to do it, doing it at the start of the season is better than at the end of the year when we would miss him for the playoffs," Clouston said.

It's true that the timing of this injury, though not the injury itself, is beneficial for the Senators. Training camp provides plenty of young guns and outsiders an opportunity to earn roster spots. Therefore, options exist for Clouston to fill Kuba's role if it's expected that the Czech-native will miss a significant number of games. The prime candidate to step into his spot will likely be Brian Lee, who has 82 total NHL games to his credit but has spent most of his time the past three years being passed around the Ottawa its AHL affiliate in Binghamton.