-The big news of the day is that the NHL lockout is over (Darren Dreger reports training camps could open as early as Wednesday). I have to give SensProspects his due for calling it early. I didn’t think the lockout would happen and then believed it would be short, but in the end the league and players weren’t stupid enough to lose an entire season. Hopefully the hockey will be entertaining over the truncated schedule. Mark Parisi worries that the acrimonious relationship between the players and the owners will lead to further problems, but I don’t see it. The CBA is all about the money. Pierre LeBrun breaks down the deal while Stu Hackel looks at some of the factors involved in coming to a deal, including:
The threat by the players of disclaiming interest in their union — essentially dissolving it as their bargaining agent in these negotiations. Had they actually done so, it would have removed the legal obstacles preventing them from pursing anti-trust litigation against the owners. Had lawsuits of that nature proceeded, and if a judge ruled in favor of the players, the owners would have been liable for triple the monetary damages being sought. This was a tactic to get the league to bargain more actively when it showed little willingness to compromise on key issues and was only put before the players reluctantly by the NHLPA leadership and rather late in the process; some labor law experts and observers believed the union should have gone this route weeks, if not months, ago. The players first voted to give their executive committee the authority to disclaim interest in late December, with an expiration of Jan. 2, and as that date came closer, progress began to be made. When it expired and there was no agreement, the players detected that the owners changed their approach to bargaining, so they voted again to give the executive that authority and an agreement followed in short order.
A third factor was the removal of owners from the process. At many of the major bargaining sessions, a group of hardline owners sat across the table from the union representatives and players. Those sessions were generally unproductive and, at times, fractious. More progress was made in early December when some less militant owners joined the talks and Bettman and Fehr temporarily excluded themselves. But the hardest of the hardliners, Boston’s Jeremey Jacobs and Calgary’s Murray Edwards, remained involved and those sessions couldn’t finish off the agreement. Talks came crashing to a halt when the players said they wanted Fehr back in the process, that they were not trained in the art of closing the deal, and having their leader present was something they were certainly entitled to do. Edwards reportedly told them that Fehr’s return would be a deal-killer and things ground to a halt. Following that episode, the league wisely decided against active ownership participation.
-Binghamton continued their winning ways with a 3-1 victory over Hershey. I was unable to watch the game, but Ben Bishop picked up the win (the only goal against came off Eric Gryba‘s skate), while Stephane Da Costa, Mike Hoffman, and Mark Stone (empty-netter) provided the goals. Here are the highlights and the box score.
-Binghamton faces Albany (12-11-7) this afternoon; the Devils are lead by former B-Sen Bobby Butler (22 points) and backstopped by Keith Kinkaid (9-7-3 2.40 .918). Binghamton defeated Albany 3-2 in their last meeting.
-Elmira lost 6-4 to Reading last night with Gazley (named as an ECHL all-star), Downing, and Caporusso all earning points in the loss. The Jackals play Trenton (14-14-5) this afternoon; the Titans are lead by Andy Bohmbach and backstopped by Scott Wedgewood (10-9-2 3.03 .901).
–Don Brennan offers his Sens predictions for this season which seem to have been composed months ago and dusted off with the lockout over. Brennan speculates Craig Anderson will be traded at some point because…well it’s not really made clear why (I’ll infer that it’s to make room for Robin Lehner). He speculates that Jakob Silfverberg could one day be a 35-goal scorer (an odd number to choose), but otherwise all his roster guesses are standard (Peter Regin goes unmentioned but presumably fits in as the unnamed player on the third line).
–Ken Warren also looks at the roster and speculates that the Sens may need to make a trade to fill in the void left by Jared Cowen. He also indulges in Brennan’s Anderson speculation, although I suspect it is much more likely that Ben Bishop would be trade bait if a deal is made this year.
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
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eyeonthesens 
If Anderson struggles early expect a move. As we both know Bishop/Lehner have played fantastically in the AHL, We can at least get a couple of picks in return for Andy or a prospect. Much more then we paid when we traded him.
The only way I can see the Sens pulling the trigger on Anderson is if they struggle badly this season.