OTTAWA — Kevin Hayes came here with the full intention of playing.
Despite coach Alain Vigneault saying his second-line center was “less than 50 percent” for going against the Senators with a lower-body ailment, Hayes was able to play during his team’s difficult 6-3 loss Saturday afternoon at Canadian Tire Center.
Hayes said he had not heard what Vigneault said to the media after he missed practice Friday in New York and that the reason he needed a maintenance day was not because of the same leg contusion that had held him out of six straight in late January.