With medicals, fitness testing and skate tests wrapped up over the last few days, the Ottawa Senators got down to business at training camp this weekend.
The first preseason game of the 2015/2016 season goes tomorrow night with a split squad match up against the Toronto Maple Leafs. With that in mind, Head Coach Dave Cameron had his team scrimmaging yesterday in an attempt to help them get up to speed in time for tomorrow’s games.
And while Sens Fan Fest will dominate most of today’s conversation, there are two separate on-ice sessions at 10:00 AM and 12:00 PM. The first session will include members of Group 1 (including Anderson, Turris, Stone, Methot) while the afternoon session includes a scrimmage between Groups 2 and 3. It should be a fun day at Canadian Tire Centre as fans get their first real chance to see the Senators in action.
A few quick thoughts from yesterday.
-You certainly don’t want to put too much thought (or any for matter) into a training camp scrimmage but it’s obviously nice to see Bobby Ryan getting off to a good start. After such a rough finish to his season, you know Ryan is eager to start this season strong. Preliminary reports suggest he’s come to Camp in better shape than previous years which could be great news for the Senators. Ryan scored twice in yesterday’s scrimmage.
-Also interesting to see Nick Paul getting a look on a line with Bobby Ryan and Milan Michalek in yesterday’s scrimmage. Nick Paul is going to be in tough to make this team out of training camp but it’s a good sign for him that they are trying him with some of the team’s more established wingers. Management has said it on a couple of occasions now but Nick Paul is not far off from being an everyday NHLer. Seems clear he’s going to get every opportunity to show what he can do in this year’s preseason.
-Thomas Chabot was also given a great opportunity to showcase himself yesterday, skating alongside Captain Erik Karlsson. Chabot raved about the experience afterwards and while he isn’t going to be in the mix for a spot on the big team this year but attending an NHL camp at the age of 18 has to be a pretty exciting. I’ll be interested to see how he looks in the preseason games.
-Some other interesting combinations from scrimmage yesterday include Marc Methot playing with roster hopeful Chris Wideman, Zibanejad centring a line with Shane Prince and Cole Schneider and a likely first line of MacArthur-Turris-Stone. Tomorrow night’s preseason games should give us a pretty good look at some possible line combinations heading into the season.
