Ottawa’s news this morning:
–Peter Regin tweaked his ankle yesterday, but Tim Murray confirmed he’ll be fine for training camp (www.ottawasun.com/2011/09/08/tough-turn-for-senators-at-informal-workout).
-Rob Brodie interviewed Jared Cowen (http://senators.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=587963). “I’m pretty excited to start this year. It’s pretty exciting that we’ll have a younger team. I wouldn’t say the culture is changing, but it’s a different feel around here, for sure. It’s new for everyone, so I’m pretty excited to get things going. I feel really good on the ice. This is the best I’ve felt in awhile. Any time you feel good about yourself, you play better and have confidence. Going into camp, that’ll be on my side, for sure.” And “When you’re trying to become a pro, you have a pretty good idea of what you have to work on. You get a pretty good image of yourself and what you need to be. We talk but at the same time, they’re my competition and they don’t want to give me too much.”
–The Ottawa Sun‘s Bruce Garrioch talked to Chris Phillips (www.ottawasun.com/2011/ 09/08/phillips-ready-to-be-a-leader). The quote that stood out to me was this, “I’ve got to make sure that I help (the young) guys out. I’m going to have to make sure I can communicate more with all the young guys and be a leader.” I don’t think Phillips meant to imply that previously he did not communicate much with younger players, but that’s how it reads.
-Pierre Dorion was interviewed on The Team 1200 this morning (www.team1200.com/ default.asp). The main points of interest was him trying to temper the hype around Mark Borowiecki as well as saying that the scouting community give him a lot of positive feedback about Mark Stone after his participation at the World Junior camp (the most hype, he said, that he’s heard since Erik Karlsson). He also said that Andre Petersson is the organisation’s most skilled prospect while Derek Grant is their most underrated prospect.
-Adam Proteau of The Hockey News wrote about the top ten storylines to watch in the NHL this year (http://www.thehockeynews.com/articles/41682-THNcom-Top-10-Storylines-to-watch.html), which includes the Sens at #8, “Other than the presumptive first line of Jason Spezza centering Daniel Alfredsson and Milan Michalek, Ottawa’s forward group is a giant mystery. THN’S depth chart shows the second line as Peter Regin between Nick Foligno and Bobby Butler – and if that’s the way it plays out as the year begins, it could be a very long season in Canada’s capital city.” The sentiment isn’t unique to Proteau.
–Sports Illustrated has an interesting article looking into the use of painkillers in the NHL (http://nhl-red-light.si.com/2011/09/06/does-the-nhl-have-a-painkiller-problem/?sct=nhl_bf1_a3). It’s a very interesting read and, until recently, not something much discussed in the league. Here’s a quote from Justin Bourne who was interviewed for it, “When you’re playing in the minors, they’re always around. You don’t have to stop. I have no idea if use is as prevalent in the NHL as they are in the ECHL, but there was certainly plenty of casual use by guys on the way up….When you talk to any hockey player in his mid-20s and beyond, a huge majority of them have endured something horribly painful that required these pills. And I mean required them. Just by nature itself, some people are hard-wired to love ‘em, some are hard-wired to hate ‘em. When you run enough pills through enough guys, it’s inevitable you’re going to hit a handful that love ‘em just a touch too much.”
-TSN’s Scott Cullen’s top-300 fantasy point projections are up (http://tsn.ca/ fantasy_news/feature/?fid=49646) and here are the Sens:
44. Jason Spezza 67-24-38-62
154. Erik Karlsson 73-12-31-43
212. Milan Michalek 68-20-17-37
242. Nick Foligno 75-15-19-34
248. Daniel Alfredsson 65-14-19-33
262. Peter Regin 72-11-21-32
265. Bobby Butler 74-17-15-32
-Updates on a former Sen and a former B-Sen: Jarkko Ruutu has signed with Jokerit of the SM-Liiga (http://twitter.com/#!/jokerithc/status/112049919132565504); Tim Spencer, who last year was sent from Binghamton to Elmira to the Florida Everblades, has signed with the Chicago Express of the ECHL (www.oursportscentral.com/services/ releases/?id=4292131).
1 Comment
Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI
eyeonthesens 
Hmmm…no Nikita Filatov on the fantasy rankings. I think he’s going to take people by surprise this season.