The Ottawa Senators were on the ice for practice this morning ahead of tomorrow night’s game against the Buffalo Sabres.
That divisional match up now takes on some extra significance as the recently acquired Kyle Turris is expected to make his Ottawa Senators debut. Turris was one of the first players on the ice at practice this morning.
As I’ve mentioned this is a deal that Paul MacLean played a part in so you would expect that Turris is going to get a shot to make an impact right away. Based on the way the Sens lined up at practice this morning, it looks like Turris will centre the second line with Foligno and Condra and will also seem time on the second power play unit. Bobby Butler was the 13th forward at practice.
Greening-Spezza-Alfredsson
Foligno-Turris-Condra
Smith-Regin-Neil
Daugavins-Konopka-Winchester
Based on today's practice, it sounds like both Sergei Gonchar and Filip Kuba are going to return to the line up tomorrow night. The power play has looked out of sorts the last few games and will certainly improve with the return of two veteran defenceman. Brian Lee will likely be the odd man out.
Cowen-Karlsson
Kuba-Gonchar
Phillips-Carkner
While all the focus has shifted to Turris the last couple days, how about the recent run by Jason Spezza.
His 3 goal, 5 assist week earned him first star of the week honours. Spezza has racked up 36 points this season and is just three back of the lead in the NHL scoring race. Spezza has taken his game to another level the last few games and will look to extend his five game point scoring streak against Buffalo tomorrow night.
- Something interesting that came up in the comment section yesterday is the fact that Kyle Turris is now the youngest forward on the Senators roster. There seemed to be an assumption that because Bryan Murray was trading a prospect he was “straying” from the rebuild. Definitely not the case. Turris is a young forward and at 22 years of age, he fits in well with the other young players in this organization. He will wear #7 in his Sens debut tomorrow night.
- Mentioned this on the site this morning but there has been another twist in the drama around Nikita Filatov. Filatov's agent has asked the CSKA team to work out a trade if they can't get the paperwork on a new contract by midnight. If they do not either sign or trade Filatov, Filatov's agent indicated that he plans to return to Ottawa.
- If there’s one certainty around the weekend deal, it’s the fact that people love talking about it! The comment section on this site has blown up over the past 48 hours with nearly 500 comments since the trade broke on Saturday. Thanks to all of you that have taken the time to contribute!
- Still no update on the status of Milan Michalek. He was not on the ice at practice today. I've been told on a couple of occasions that the concussion is not considered serious.
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