Senators cancel practice amid COVID-19 outbreak

OTTAWA -

The Ottawa Senators cancelled their practice on Monday amid a COVID-19 outbreak that has spread to at least five people.

Forwards Connor Brown and Dylan Gambrell were placed in the NHL's COVID-19 protocol Monday morning.

The team recalled forwards Egor Sokolov and Scott Sabourin from Belleville in related moves.

Previously, defenceman Nick Holden, forward Austin Watson and assistant coach Jack Capuano were all placed in the league's COVID protocol after their tests came back positive.

The Senators are scheduled to play the Bruins in Boston on Tuesday night.

The cases come on the heels of the team's first U.S. road trip since the beginning of the pandemic.

"It's hard to pinpoint where it starts, or how it starts," head coach D.J. Smith said Monday. "It happens. We're not putting the blame on people."

Members of the organization are now being tested daily, Smith said. The team will take extra precautions on their trip to Boston.

"We won't leave the hotel, we'll have to order food in," he said. "We'll do all the things we did a year ago to make sure we put a stop to this."

Players "are doing everything they can to try not to get it," he said.