The Ottawa Senators would be the first to admit that the effort they put forward in their home opener on Sunday was nowhere near good enough.
While the game could have gone differently with a bounce here or there (think back to that Methot shot that hit the post mid-way through the third), the reality is the Senators just didn’t play well enough to win the game.
And not nearly well enough considering they were playing in front of a rookie making his first start in the National Hockey League.
This afternoon, that rookie was returned to Binghamton of the American Hockey League.
With Andrew Hammond now healthy and ready to go, the Senators announced they have returned Matt O’Connor to the Binghamton Senators. That’s obviously where they planned on starting O’Connor this year so hopefully now the goalies up here can stay health and allow O’Connor a chance to work on his game in the AHL.
Hammond had been dealing with a slight groin injury but took part in this morning’s practice and has been declared healthy and ready to go.
How Dave Cameron divides the upcoming starts will be interesting. The Sens have another back to back coming up (tomorrow in Columbus, Thursday in Pittsburgh) so you would think he’ll try to split the starts. Except because Anderson sat out Sunday’s game, you would assume that means he starts the Columbus game. Which means throwing Hammond to the wolves a little bit by matching him up against the Penguins in his first action of the year.
Tough call either way.
One other bit of news this morning was the absence of Curtis Lazar from practice. He is expected to travel tomorrow though and should be in the line up. And because Chiasson was skating in Lazar’s usual spot with Pageau and Michalek, that may mean Shane Prince gets a chance to play tomorrow. He was on a line with Zack Smith and Chris Neil at practice.
We’ll see what Dave Cameron has in store tomorrow.
