There is good news, there is bad news and there is Monday news.
I’ll start with the good news- The NHL season is well underway and after a long summer without hockey, the game we love is finally back up and running.
The bad news- for some reason, the Ottawa Senators have a four-day break just two games into the year. That’s right. They don’t play again until THURSDAY, when they play host to the defending Champion St. Louis Blues.
And now, the Monday News (and notes).
-Over the weekend, the Senators announced that they have sent both Drake Batherson and Filip Chlapik to Belleville of the American Hockey League. On the surface, it looks like a bit of an overreaction to two ugly games but it will be interesting to see what happens next.Perhaps the plan is to shuttle young back and forth for most of the year until they can carve out a role for themselves in the line up? Seems like a good way to keep the kids in Belleville motivated, if that’s the case. There’s no doubt that Drake Batherson in particular has looked overwhelmed throughout the preseason and in both regular season games. Meanwhile Chlapik has played primarily a fourth line role.
-This morning the Senators announced that they have recalled forward Vitaly Abramov from Belleville. Abramov was one of the stars of Training Camp early but an injury slowed him down a little bit during the preseason. Now he gets a chance to come back up and show what he can do. Considering both the Sens and BSens are off, it’s a little bit strange they didn’t announce both moves at the same time but thi$ work$, I $uppo$e.
-It is with great sadness that I must report that not only is Kathryn Kraft not involved in (or hinting at) the purchase of the Ottawa Senators but it turns she uhh doesn’t even exist. Talk about a double whammy. On Saturday, Sens Twitter was abuzz with excitement, as three emojis were taken as an indication that the Senators had been sold to the Kraft Family. Three emojis, from a random tweet, of a screen shot of an Instagram post, from a person that none of us had ever heard of. Ya know, I think we all may need to give our collective head a shake after that one.
-There are two reasons that tweet caught on the way it did. The first reason- Sens fans are desperate for a change in ownership. We’ve all been hearing the rumours for the better part of three years now and we want so badly for the next rumour to be the one that sticks. The second reason, is that for the last few months, people connected to the team have been hearing the speculation. That something, although nobody is sure exactly what, is up. It’s obviously not a lot to go on but we all hear the whispers. Partly because of what is clearly a precarious financial situation but also because Mr. Melnyk’s personal situation. The casino lawsuit and the repossessed private only seemed to increase the talk. Just a month ago, I actually heard that a couple national media personalities were chasing the story too. So maybe Kathryn Kraft isn’t involved in the purchase of the Ottawa Senators and maybe she doesn’t even exist but that doesn’t mean the rumours and speculation about the future of Sens Ownership will end any time soon. In dismissing the Kraft rumours, John Shannon mentioned that there were a few people kicking tires on the Senators.
-On Saturday, the Ottawa Senators announced that they will retire the number four in honour of Chris Phillips prior to a game against the Buffalo Sabres on February 18th. As you would expect, it was an announcement that was met with plenty of debate. While Phillips was never a flashy player, there is no denying the mark he left on this organization and on the community in general. The franchise’s all-time leader in games played, Phillips was a pillar on the Ottawa blueline during some of their best seasons. The pairing of Phillips and Anton Volchenkov was one of the best shutdown pairing in the league during their heyday. And while Phillips may not fit the traditional mould you’d expect when it comes to jersey retirement, this whole process is entirely subjective. It’s up to individual organizations to decide what factors are important. Considering the recent history of the Ottawa Senators, it’s surprising that they would place additional emphasis on things like longevity and commitment to the franchise. Chris Neil is up next.
