Is it time for hockey yet? No? What about now?
For those keeping track at home, which is the responsible place to keep track of such things during a global pandemic, the Ottawa Senators have now gone 257 days without playing a hockey game.
The anticipation leading up to the Draft Lottery and then Draft Day itself sustained us for a bit. Then Pierre Dorion did his best to keep us occupied for a month. But now, with city of Ottawa blanketed in snow, it has become abundantly clear that something is missing. And that something in Sens hockey.
It’s sort of a miracle this Sens site still exists after 257 days without hockey but we just need to hang on a bit longer. 40 more days? We can do this.
Let’s try Monday News and Notes…
-Team Canada kicked off their World Junior Selection Camp in Red Deer, Alberta last week in preparation for next month’s annual tournament. If you’re counting down the days till watchable hockey returns, this is probably the event you have in mind, at least until the NHL locks in a date. Ottawa first round pick Ridly Greig tested positive for COVID-19 in the lead up to the Camp but will still participate. He has completed his quarantine period and was back on the ice yesterday. He’s expected to join the full group later this week.
-Speaking of the World Juniors, another Sens’ first round pick cracked his country’s roster as Tim Stützle was included on Team Germany’s initial list last week. Shocking I know. What remains unclear is whether or not he’ll actually be available for that tournament. While his recovery from a hand injury is progressing well, we still don’t know exactly what the Ottawa Senators have planned for him next season. Over the weekend, Bruce Garrioch indicated that discussions on an entry-level contract are still in the “early stages” and the Sens are trying to secure his release from his team in Manheim. The DEL is scheduled to begin their season on December 17th. From Ottawa’s perspective, they likely want to know exactly what an NHL season might look like before taking steps to actually secure his release.
-Oh and if you missed it last week, the documentary video following Tim Stützle in the lead-up to the NHL Entry Draft is certainly worth your time. It includes unedited video of his immediate reaction in the moments after he was selected by the Ottawa Senators. It was really interesting to see his reaction to being passed over to Los Angeles. While my Sens fan insecurities expected to see some disappointment on his face, it wasn’t really there. And actually, there were a lot of people around Tim that seemed to feel quite strongly that Ottawa was the best place for him. Again, the video is definitely worth a watch if you haven’t already. Oh and unless you speak fluent German, I recommend hitting the closed captioning video on YouTube for the English subtitles.
-The NHL is going to have to get its act together pretty soon if they are hoping to have a new season start by January 1st. Last week, the news took a pretty depressing turn on that front as we learned there are fairly significant issues playing out between players and owners when it comes to things like salary deferral and escrow. It certainly didn’t give the impression that an announcement was imminent but let’s hope they can find some common ground. Unlike those ugly CBA negotiations of the past, neither side can afford not to play. There were rumours that the Senators could start training camp as early as December 7th if the season was starting January 1st. That’s uhh two weeks away. LeBrun has suggested they’ll need an agreement in place by December 1st to make a January 1st start date work. Tick tock.
-One thing that’s going to be fascinating to watch over the next couple seasons is the progress of Ottawa’s young goaltenders. While Matt Murray has the number one spot locked down for now and Marcus Hogberg appears to be a short-term solution as a back-up, there are plenty of legitimate prospects on the way. It’s no secret that the Senators like Joey Daccord as one of the goalies of the future but there are other guys in the system worth watching. Filip Gustavsson got off to a bit of a slow start in his transition to North American hockey but looked much better towards the end of the year in Belleville. And the good news is he seems to be carrying that over to start this year in Sweden. Meanwhile Leevi Merilainen is off to a a strong start in Finland too. Oh and don’t forget about Mads Sogaard, who was loaned to a team in Denmark last week. Goalies are hard to predict but the good news is the Senators have plenty of good ones in the system.
-On Friday, the Senators announced the signing of 20-year old Russian forward Egor Sokolov to a three-year, entry-level contract. Sokolov was selected in the 2nd round (61st overall) in this year’s draft. Sokolov is going to be an interesting prospect to watch this year because at 20 years of age, he’s a little further along in his development than some of the other selections. In fact, he has a damn good chance at being an important player in Belleville as early as next season. Sokolov’s numbers in his third year in the QMJHL jump off the page as he put up an incredible 46 goals and 92 points in just 52 games with Cape Breton. And while he’s not necessarily expected to be that type of impact player offensively at the pro-level, his work ethic and commitment to getting better suggests that he’s going to be a guy to keep an eye on in the next couple years.
