Jason Spezza out up to 8 weeks with knee injury

The official word on Jason Spezza's injury is in, and it's not good. Spezza could miss up to 8 weeks after sustaining a serious injury to his right knee in last night's game against the Toronto Maple Leafs. When asked about it, Spezza simply said "I don't want to speculate, but it didn't feel good." Jason is going to get an MRI this afternoon to determine the full extent of the damage.

Despite his relative lack of production this season, Spezza had started to heat up, with goals in his last two games. This is a huge blow to the Senators, who are now missing their number one centre, starting goaltender Pascal Leclaire, and two relied upon energy players in Chris Neil and Shean Donovan. How the team bands together and handles this injury will be a true test, especially given their heavy workload in the next couple of months.

On the plus side, this will force Spezza to rest, which may not be a bad thing. The time off could be what he needs to heal the nagging injury that has been bothering him for the majority of the season.

As mentioned earlier, Josh Hennessy has been recalled to replace Spezza in the lineup for the time being. It currently looks as though Hennessy will play on a bottom-six line, with Jesse Winchester taking Spezza's spot between Milan Michalek and Daniel Alfredsson. If that doesn't work, look for Peter Regin, Nick Foligno or Ryan Shannon to get a shot as pivot in the top-six.