The Ottawa Senators are expecting centre Colin White to be on the mend for a while.
White sustained an upper-body injury five minutes into Monday's pre-season game against Toronto while landing awkwardly on his arm after a collision with Maple Leafs forward David Kampf. After slowly getting up, White headed to the Senators dressing room and did not return.
Senators head coach D.J. Smith said Tuesday the team is still awaiting test results but it "doesn't look good at the point."
"They haven't told me exactly what everything is but it is his shoulder and he's going to be out a significant amount of time," Smith said. "He'll get looked at today and then I think we'll have an answer in the next couple days."
The Senators now face some depth problems down the middle with centre Clark Bishop also out due to a lower-body injury.
White, 24, had 10 goals and eight assists in 45 games last season.
"That really hurts us," Smith said. "He's a guy that's been in the league, can play on the power play, can take right draws, when he's going he can get to the net and he can do a lot of things and now you find yourself in a spot where you're a little thin there, especially if another injury were to happen.
"I mean, Bishop got hurt earlier in camp, which is unfortunate and he's a guy that could certainly fill in on a fourth line role and give us that depth. Now we've got two of what we thought would be our five (centres) coming into training camp that are out for a significant amount of time. We'll have to figure that out and we will."
