The Ottawa Senators completed their first official on ice session of training camp on Sunday with more than 2,500 fans looking on.
The session featured about 60 minutes of drills, followed by a quick flood and then another 45 minutes including a scrimmage. Paul MacLean told the media his team was going to skate this week and they wasted no time getting down to business on Sunday. The team is back on the ice today at noon.
A reminder that all on ice sessions are open to the public. For a look at the complete training camp schedule, go here.
While I was unable to attend the first on ice session, I did watch parts of it through the club’s online stream. Certainly looked like an up tempo skate with everyone clearly excited to be back on the ice. You don’t want to take too much from the first on ice session but the line combinations Paul MacLean used to start camp were interesting.
- Michalek-Spezza-Silfverberg
- Latendresse-Turris-Alfredsson
- Greening-Smith-Condra
- Hoffman-Regin-Neil
- Daugavins-O'Brien-Noesen
No surprises in the top six here but the most interesting combo has to be that fourth line, which includes Binghamton stand out Mike Hoffman. Jim O’Brien, who many have penciled in as 4th line centre, started on the “fifth” line on Day One.
Without any preseason games available to try out different combinations, it will be interesting to see if MacLean does any shuffling of these trios. If he sticks with these lines, Mike Hoffman could find his way into the opening night line up.
- Methot-Karlsson
- Phillips-Ceci
- Wiercioch-Gonchar
- Borowiecki-Benoit
One look at the defence pairings on Day One and you can see why Murray is in the market for an upgrade on the back end. Beyond that first pairing, there are a whole lot of questions marks in those pairings. I think we’ll see some shuffling of those combinations throughout the mini-camp as the Sens attempt to determine exactly what they have on the back end.
Goaltending is talked about as a strength for this team and all three looked sharp to start the season. It will be fascinating to watch Anderson, Bishop and Lehner push each other throughout training camp.
Right back at it at noon today. Will post updates from that session as they become available.
- When the Ottawa Senators take the ice in Winnipeg this Saturday, they will be one of three games that officially mark the return of the NHL hockey. The Hawks are in Los Angeles to take on the defending champs and the Penguins are in Philadelphia to take on the Flyers. A reminder you can catch the Sens season opener on CBC.
- While addressing a weak blue line remains a priority for Bryan Murray, it looks like the organization is willing to wait to see what they have in Patrick Wiercioch, Andre Benoit and Mark Borowiecki. The Sens have talked to a few teams over the course of the past couple days and I would assume, have an idea what it would take to get a deal done. The Chicago Blackhawks remain the team mentioned most often in rumours.
- A reminder that tickets for the Senators first ten games will go on sale to the public at 10:00 AM today. You can visit capitaltickets.ca or head down to the Scotiabank box office.
next year he's fighting Zibanejad, Stone, Noesen and Grant to name a few obvious candidates
make the most of it bud.
Nope, MacLean has decided against that.
With the majority of our players in mid season form due to playing overseas, Murray obviously doesn't want to burn them out before the puck drops. The only notable exceptions are Alfie, Big Rig and Anderson. Hopefully Anderson doesn't get off to a slow start, but for the most part, our guys will have less rust then many other teams.
Fair enough...
Was really hoping to catch the scrimmage today, but cant as it's during the day
Where are you hearing this?
I hope it's not Hockeyy Insiderr!
Methot and EK looked like they've been playing together for awhile. I was surprised with Methot's first pass, it was clean, not sure he's noted for that. Most of his talent was pointed at his defensive game. I guess a practice is a hard to way to determine how his pass will be, until we see him in a game situation with more pressure, but I expect he'll deliver.
I'm expecting some big things from him and EK. I actually have a feeling that EK will benefit even more with Methot as his pairing than he did with Kuba, but the benefit will come from learning the defensive aspect of the game. Kuba was always seen as offense first with sound defensive approach 2nd.
While this style did help pad EK's point totals, Methot may actually help pad EK's +/- from last years +16. Considering the road Karlsson's taken in Ottawa, it will be good to see. There is no doubt he will continue to be offensive, he has to be, as that's the system Ottawa uses. But I don't think anyone is expecting another 78 point type of season (or the equivalent in a 48 game season).
Anaheim will do whatever they can to resign them but that doesnt mean they can. Friedman stated that Perry could be a little more challenging to sign that Getzlaf as he isnt as settled with kids and family. He also pointed out that Perry is close to his parents who live in Peterborough and may want to head East and play closer to home. This is 100% speculation on his part but it makes sense. And, that puts Ottawa in a better position than most to land him. And, we have plenty of assets for a trade - more than say the Leafs.
Also the fact that they didn't sign bigass contracts before the last cba ended. If they wanted to stay in anaheim longterm they should've signed then.
I agree but Friedman noted that the players agents tried to get Parise - esque contracts but Anahiem refused as they wanted to wait and see what the new CBA would bring, and rightly so. Apparently, Anaheim was a team that wanted major, sweeping changes to contract structure. This refusal may have hurt their relationship with these two. I wouldnt be surprised at all to see Getzlaf resigned and Perry dealt. Imagine the return you could get for PErry? Good situation for Anaheim to be in.
I have a feeling Silfverberg will be an absolute beauty this year. He loves the front of the net also loves to shoot.
I think he learned the biggest thing already in bingo his year which is to move the puck much faster on smaller ice. If he shoots every time he gets the puck in the o-zone hell be unstoppable. His release is absolutely dirty and we all know Spezza will find him on a regular basis. I honestly think he'll be better in the NHL than he was in the AHL
Any thoughts on what this means? Precursor to any move? They're all pretty minor players, but...
Jessiman on waivers.. wtf? He was playing pretty good I thought, mind you a lot of 4th line minutes. But with players being bumped to Ottawa, you would have thought that meant more opportunity. This HAS to mean something, it's just too strange not too.
Whaaaat the hell is going on?? Jessiman and Eckford? Why waive those guys? You would have to think that Eckford is worth holding on to especially considering we may have two of Weircioch Boro and Benoit in the NHL for a little while.
Just a wild guess - now that the NHL is back, perhaps they need to now "officially" clear waivers to be able to play in the AHL and this is more administrative than anything else? I believe they are the three oldest players on Bingo.
But the Ducks won't be able to afford him, unless he goes for the home town discount. And honestly, when was the last time that ever happened. It's funny cause people bring it up all the time, but outside of Alfredsson doing that the year the Sens were sold, you just don't see players do it often, not top level stars anyway.
It's been said that Anaheim is losing it's luster with players, they aren't on the up and up these days, many older players on the roster. It won't be long before you start to hear rebuild again, which actually started rumbling last year. Outside of Perry and Getzlaf who are UFA's in 2013/14, Hiller in 2014/15 they have many 2012/13 UFA's, most of which won't get signed such as Selänne, Allen, Beauchemin, Koivu, Staubitz and Winnik. Not that it's a huge issue, if anything that will free up the space. But would they want to drop that experience to sign Perry, or go the rebuild direction?
That being said, I'd expect Anaheim to trade him and get what they can before he signs elsewhere for nothing. Or have an agreement in place that it's a sign and trade type of situation. Regardless, Perry will cash in, even with the new contracts structure and he'll get max dollar and years available. It'll just depend on who can afford him.
If it's just money, Ottawa could find a spot for sure, which would all but end our rebuild/retool, as it would 100% involve 1st and 2nd round picks this year and next.
Agreed with most of what you've laid out here! I think Anaheim's plan is to go rebuild after this season. They were trying to for one last run with Selanne these last couple seasons, but if they lose Perry I don't think they have a choice going forward.
The guy has still got it!
I keeping out of this discussion or I mean I am not chiming in on this subject.
I've seen rumblings that Gamecenter Live will be 50% off this season but I can't find any information on NHL.com. Anyone know if this is legit in CAnada and could share a link?
Thanks,
I could see them asking for Smith (easy yes on our part), Zbad (easy yes) or Cowan, especially as they have just lost Schultz. Cowan might be difficult to part with, Ottawa isn't that deep on quality shut down blueliners.
Plus, he's an injured player coming back from major surgery. Who knows if he'll return the same player he was...
I think it's a big ask as well, what might keep Anaheim from asking is his injury status, we basically have no idea how his return will go.
Can't say I'm surprised. He really put in the work over the summer and looked solid in Bingo.
So who else stays?
My point was that a healthy Cowen is something I am sure Ananheim would want but they would be unlikely to gamble on him. That means their attention switches to our forwards (which is actually better for us), or our goalies which means Lehner (because you don't give up Corey Perry to get Ben Bishop).
Maybe we need a perryfan10, who would appreciate such a comment! lol
That's great to hear, he's really come a long way in the last year and a half. I love his 2way game, and that shot from the point could be even better at the NHL level.
As for who else, I personally think Weircioch, Karlsson and Gonchar would give us enough puck moving ability, that I would rather have a hard tough dman like Boro or Gryba as our 6th/7th. But if for some reason Ceci can play at the NHL level, let him have it.
To me Benoit is just an injury emergence call-up if we need PP help.
As part of my last comment, where it would take 1st and 2nd round picks, I neglected to mention roster players in that mix. But I figured it was obvious. So yes, that's also a deterrent to making such a trade.
I think most of us appreciate Spezzafan19 staying out of various conversations, especially when he joins the conversation to tell us he's staying out of it.
LMAO
If he is picked up on waivers he has to stay with the big club. I believe only re-entry waivers were removed to protect players when they are re-called. I don't think that's the message Murray would want to send to our Bingo boys.