–The Ottawa Sun‘s Bruce Garrioch looks at last night’s game (link) with a Filip Kuba summing it up best, “The first period we didn’t play as well as we wanted. We didn’t do a good job. The second and third we played a lot better. Andy played really good for us. He was unbelieveable.”
–The Ottawa Citizen‘s Allen Panzeri (link) writes about Mike Hoffman and includes a comment from Paul MacLean about what he was looking for from him, “He showed great speed through the exhibition season. He’s worked hard in Binghamton. Their team has had some struggles along with him, but he does bring an awful lot of speed to the game, and if he can bring that to us (Friday night), and the energy of playing in his first game, I think it’s going to help the team a lot.” Hoffman has been re-assigned to Binghamton, leaving a positive impression with the coaching stuff.
-Garrioch’s potpourri article (link) includes trade-talk involving Peter Regin, “If [he] hadn’t suffered a likely season-ending shoulder injury this week, he could have been trade bait at the deadline. Phoenix had interest in Regin before the Coyotes dealt Kyle Turris to the Senators for David Rundblad and a No. 2 pick last week. Phoenix decided to take a pass on Regin, but that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t have garnered interest in February. A RFA in July, Regin’s career could be at a crossroads if he doesn’t play again this season in Ottawa.” Given his injury history I doubt he could be moved now. I wonder if the Sens will simply cut him loose once his contract is up or give him a chance to prove he’s healthy next year. It’s too bad, as I’m a fan of Regin‘s, but at this stage I really wonder if his shoulder can stand up to an NHL-pounding.
-Canada lost 4-3 to Sweden in the final tune-up game for the World Junior Championship. Ottawa prospect Mark Stone scored (once officially, twice in reality), as did Mika Zibanejad (twice) while Fredrik Claesson was great defensively.
eyeonthesens 