After speaking with a number of credible sources this morning, I can confirm with absolute certainty that the Ottawa Senators, do indeed, still exist.
Just barely but in existence just the same. In existence doesn’t really have the same ring as In Session, does it?
Despite having their schedule generally ravaged by postponements recently, it does sound like the Sens may play a hockey game again in the coming days. Tonight’s game in Seattle was obviously mega-cancelled but at the moment, it does seem like the team is gearing up to play a Saturday night game against the surging Vancouver Canucks.
We are very much in a “believe it when we see it” situation when it comes to hockey games these days but what we know for sure is earlier today, Pierre Dorion (who also still exists) made an appearance on TSN 1200.
Honestly, he didn’t say a whole lot. But because what the hell else am I gonna do, here’s a bunch of words on what the GM had to say this morning.
-First, a few notes on the team heading to Vancouver. Obviously this is the kind of thing that can change by the minute but right now Thomas Chabot, Anton Forsberg, Dillon Heatherington and Zach Sanford are in COVID protocol. Although in the case of Thomas Chabot, it does sound like he will rejoin the team tomorrow. The goaltending situation is very much in flux although Dorion did mention that both Matt Murray and Filip Gustavsson are expected to make the trip.
-Lots of talk about Tyler Boucher. Ottawa’s first round pick from the 2021 Draft is now under contract with the Senators and with his Boston University career coming to an end, the team is now considering where he’ll ultimately end up. While Dorion mentioned that Boucher is currently practicing with the team in Belleville, they still intend on having him join the Ottawa 67’s once their season resumes. Wherever he ends up the rest of the way (apparently some games with the BSens is an option), this is a good chance at a reset for Boucher. Things weren’t going particularly well for him at BU so now he gets the chance to salvage a tough year. More importantly, the Senators have an opportunity to take a more hands-on approach to his development. He was always a bit of a project so it’s good that the Senators are now taking a more active role in helping him reach his ceiling as a player.
-The Olympics are mostly a debacle at this stage and the hockey tournament figures to be a weird one. With NHL teams pulling the plug, countries are now scrambling to put together teams. Earlier this week, we learned that Michael Del Zotto is in the mix for Team Canada and according to Pierre Dorion, Jake Sanderson has been provided with an opportunity to join Team USA. It’s not quite the same as completely dominating the World Junior tournament but this would be a pretty great experience for the organization’s top prospect. Dorion mentioned this morning that the team completely supports Sanderson on this, should he decide to go.
-There was a time not long ago when there was a mostly unfounded belief that the Ottawa Senators would never employ a Russian hockey player. You can park that apparently because now the Sens want all of them. According to Dorion, the team has spoken to the agent for Russian sniper Andrei Kuzmenko about the possibility of joining the Senators. Kuzmenko was a teammate of Artem Zub for a couple years in the KHL and he has regularly put up impressive offensive numbers, including 52 points in 42 games this season. Sounds like plenty of teams have interest though and ultimately, he doesn’t plan to sign until the end of the KHL season. Garrioch added that Dorion will meet with his agent again in a couple days and that the Sens have a good shot. Any friend of Zub is a friend of mine, I say. Bring him over!
You can listen to the full interview here.
