One thing to watch: It’s been an awakening for The Great 8, 39-year-old Capitals winger Alex Ovechkin, who has 22 goals in 34 games (he scored 31 all of last season). With 875 career goals, he’s now just 19 behind the NHL all-time record set by Wayne Gretzky.

Ullmark's next chance to suit up will be at home against Minnesota on Saturday.

Back ailments are always tricky but Ullmark has been closing in on return for nearly two weeks and accompanied the Senators on their three-game road trip last week to continue working with goalie coach Justin Peters.

In today’s Ottawa Senators News & Rumours report, I’ll take a look at two of the Senators top goalies. One is current, and the other is from the past.

Ullmark has been out of Ottawa's lineup since Dec. 22 when he left a game after one period of play in Edmonton with back tightness. It sounded precautionary at the time but turned out to be reasonably serious. This is Ullmark's second stint on the injury list. He missed a couple of weeks of action back in mid-October.

Keep updated on all the injury news and roster updates from around the NHL with daily Ice Chips. Goaltender Linus Ullmark was a full participant at this morning's skate and taking first team repetitions as he continues to work his way back from a back injury.

According to Bruce Garrioch of TSN, Ottawa Senators goaltender Linus Ullmark (back) is nearing a return and could return during their next homestand on Thursday or Saturday. The 31-year-old has been sidelined since suffering this injury on December 22.

Poised to return soon

After missing almost a month of action with a back injury, goalie Linus Ullmark looks like he'll be ready to return to the lineup soon. At that point, with Anton Forsberg and Leevi Merilainen, the Senators will have three available goalies. This just in: there isn't room on the bench for two backup goalies.

Ottawa Senators forward Nick Cousins will be out through, at least, early March after suffering a knee injury in the team’s Saturday win over the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Ottawa Senators goaltender Linus Ullmark has been sidelined for over a month with a back injury. He left a game against the Edmonton Oilers on Dec. 22 and has been out of action ever since.

The Ottawa Senators and Chicago Blackhawks could be the next teams to receive a phone call from Sweden regarding the 4 Nations Face-Off. Sweden has taken a hit