Breathe.
In through the nose and out through the mouth. Now again, through your nose except this time to a count of four. Now, hold that breath in for a count of seven. Then, exhale through your mouth for a count of eight.
Repeat as needed.
Now, and this next step is extremely important- take your laptop or handheld device and fire it out the closest window. There- do you feel better now?
Hello? Hello?
Anyway, with the Ottawa Senators set to return to the practice ice at 10:30 AM this morning, this feels like a good time for a little Tuesday News and Notes.
-After officially clearing waivers on Sunday at 2:00 PM, the Ottawa Senators have now reassigned Matt Murray to Belleville of the American Hockey League. Those words are fairly staggering, even for the most pessimistic among us. In my opinion, which is worth exactly nothing by the way, the Senators are bungling this a little bit. Without having the full context of what has been said between player and organization and without knowing what they tried before this, sending him to Belleville seems a tad extreme under the current circumstances. Desperate times, I suppose. It’s hard to imagine a scenario where this does anything but further damage his confidence but obviously the organization felt like they had run out of options. And so it appears, at least according to the Head Coach, the plan is to leave Murray down there for a significant period of time (they said six weeks) in hopes that it serves as a bit of a hard reset for the struggling goalie. We shall see. In the meantime, the team announced that Kevin Mandolese has been reassigned to the ECHL to make room for the two-time Stanley Cup winner in Belleville. Again, just strange words to write.
-That wasn’t the only waiver wire news from the last couple days as we also learned that Logan Shaw has cleared waivers and has been reassigned to the American Hockey League. Makes sense with the claim of Adam Gaudette, who is expected to make his Sens debut later this week. It’s a bit of tinkering around the edges for the NHL team but it’s a huge boost for a team in Belleville that has actually been running pretty hot lately. Logan Shaw is the Captain down there and has yet to appear in a game for the BSens this season.
-While the team has yet to make any sort of official announcement, it does sound like there’s a chance that Shane Pinto could be done for the year. Par for the course in the cursed season. Pinto briefly returned from a shoulder injury but after reaggravating that injury in the Saturday night game against the Penguins, Pinto was forced to go the surgery route. And while there is no timeline for his return, it does sound like it could keep him out the rest of the year. It’s a devastating blow for Pinto who really seemed poised for a breakout year.
-A good Captain knows how to deflect attention away from his team and that’s certainly what Brady Tkachuk did in the aftermath of Saturday night’s loss to the Los Angeles Kings. Ottawa dropped their fifth straight that night but in the aftermath, all anyone was talking about was the on-ice biting incident and Tkachuk’s response afterwards. It was a different side to Tkachuk and one we haven’t really seen in his young NHL career. While he has certainly been known to get under the skin of the opposition on the ice, this was the first time we saw what seemed like legitimate and uncontrolled anger. Clearly his issues with Brendan Lemieux go back a few years now and it all sort of boiled over on Saturday night. It’s a damn shame those two don’t play each other again this season. Lemieux has his hearing later today. Anything less than five games is completely ridiculous.
-It sounds like the Senators may be looking for some additional help up front. Adam Gaudette gives them another option at centre but according to Bruce Garrioch, they may also be interested in disgruntled Bruins forward Jake DeBrusk. On the surface, he seems like he might be a good fit. The 25-year old forward has fallen out of favour in Boston over the last couple season but with a 27-goal season under his belt, he may be worth a roll of the dice. And you would think he’s fairly affordable too. DeBrusk is in the final year of his current contract, earning $4.85 million this season. He’ll be an RFA this summer.
