Coming into this one, all the hype was focused on the newly acquired Kyle Turris.

The 22 year old was solid in his Sens debut was but just a part of a strong team effort that produced a convincing 4-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres.  With the two points the Sens pull even with the Toronto Maple Leafs and take over the 8th and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

A lengthy three day break would normally have been a down time for the Ottawa Senators.

Obviously the last few days have been anything but that. With the drama over Nikita Filatov and the Kyle Turris trade, there has been plenty to talk about to pass the time. Tonight, the Sens finally get back to playing hockey when they host the Buffalo Sabres.

After a long and seeming complicated saga, Nikita Filatov has finally reached an agreement to play in the KHL this season.

According to Dmitry Chesnokov of Yahoo Sports Twitter account, CSKA has reached an agreement with Filatov to play the remainder of the season in the KHL.

The Ottawa Senators were on the ice for practice this morning ahead of tomorrow night’s game against the Buffalo Sabres.

That divisional match up now takes on some extra significance as the recently acquired Kyle Turris is expected to make his Ottawa Senators debut. Turris was one of the first players on the ice at practice this morning.

(UPDATE 8:54 AM)- Another twist in the Filatov saga.  Filatov's agent has asked the CSKA team to work out a trade if they can't get the paperwork on a new contract by midnight.  If they do not either sign or trade Filatov, he plans to return to Ottawa.

According to Pierre LeBrun, The Ottawa Senators have acquired Kyle Turris from the Phoenix Coyotes. Still waiting for all the details on this one but it appears as though the Sens have their second line centre.

After the opening twenty minutes, it looked like this one was going to a be a bit of a snoozer.

But a wild middle frame, which included a total of eight goals between the two teams got things going and thankfully the Sens were on the good end of things.  The end result was an impressive 6-4 Ottawa win.

(UPDATE 3:04 PM)- It has been a long time coming.  As I mentioned on this site a few times over the past month, the Ottawa Senators are getting a new scoreboard at Scotiabank Place.  The Sens will make the announcement at a press conference to be held at 6:00 PM tonight.

I guess we should have seen it coming.

The Boston Bruins have been one of the league's hottest teams and continued their winning ways with a convincing 5-2 win over the Senators in front of just over 18,000 fans at Scotiabank Place.

Talk about some tough news to start the day.

The Ottawa Senators announced this morning that Milan Michalek, the NHL's leading goal scorer, is sidelined with a concussion.  The Sens do not believe the injury is serious but will obviously have to be cautious considering the recent increase in concussions around the NHL.