Regin’s Season in Jeopardy?
With a looming decision on whether or not to proceed with more rehab or corrective shoulder surgery (it would be his second procedure since March), should Peter Regin choose the latter, he could potentially miss the remainder of the 2011-12 season.
One can definitely understand why Regin would be apprehensive about missing any prolonged period of time. As an impending restricted free agent, he will have little, if any, leverage in any contract negotiations this summer. After an underwhelming sophomore season, Regin needed a bounce back campaign to remind fans of the player that they saw during the 2010 playoff series against Pittsburgh.
In fact, the Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch raised the possibility that with because of his recurring shoulder problem, Bryan Murray could potentially elect not to extend Regin a qualifying offer to keep him under team control. With players like Stephane Da Costa and Jakub Silfverberg vying for spots next season, there should be a number of forwards looking to solidify a spot on the team’s parent roster.
While Regin’s health will be an interesting situation to monitor moving forward, I can’t really fathom why management would elect to let a potential top nine forward reach the open market at the age of 26 when he can be retained for as little as his $1,050,000 qualifying offer.
Random Turris Fact of the Day
As I tweeted last night at the conclusion of the game, the last time Kyle Turris had two games in which he had more than 16 minutes of ice-time was January 26th and February 2nd, 2011. It was the only time that it happened during the 2010-11 season.
Nick Foligno Will Not Be Suspended
The word from Raleigh today is that Nick Foligno will not face league discipline for his legal check to Keaton Ellerby last night. In fact, the Senators have asked the league to rescind the game misconduct that Nicky Twigs received.
Scanner Looks at Ottawa’s Direction Moving Forward
In an excellent read in today’s Ottawa Citizen that looks at the unforeseen (albeit modest) success that the Senators have had thus far, Wayne Scanlan included this juicy tidbit of information:
The Senators believe Turris is more ready this season than Rundblad was, and here’s where it gets tricky – because the long term bet on the player is what matters. Murray says he will think about adding a piece in the New Year, if the Senators continue to be in the hunt for a top eight spot.
Considering that Murray has acknowledged in the past that he will not mortgage some significant parts of the future for some short-sighted gains, this is an interesting development. Having moved the team’s 2012 second round pick, it’s difficult to gauge who or what Murray could move to add to this team. Unless the first words out of his mouth are, “Could I interest you in this slightly used Jim O’Brien…”, I hope that he will be more willing to move veteran fodder for futures and roll the dice on the young players to get the job done.
Fielder Not the Only Prince Making Headlines
After being cut from the US National Junior Team, Ottawa 67’s forward Shane Prince cut a candid interview with the Ottawa Citizen’s Don Campbell and questioned the bias or politics that possibly pervaded the team selection.
USA Hockey’s brass has been accused in the past of having a bias against players who take the Canadian option. Prince doesn’t disagree.
“When we first arrived, we were all told we would be given fair opportunity,” Prince said. “Then I get six, maybe seven shifts. . . . And then when I didn’t play the next game, I felt maybe I had an idea of what was happening.
“If that’s fair opportunity, would somebody mind letting me know that? I really thought I could be a go-to guy on this team and I was never given that chance.”
As much as we have tendencies to rip on hockey players for their vernacular or the canned and rehearsed answers that they so often give, it’s refreshing to see Prince speak so openly. Hopefully this lights a fire under his ass and motivates him to work that much harder so that he’s a better player for the Senators in the future.
With Prince not making the cut, it officially leaves Mika Zibanejad, Fredrik Claesson and Mark Stone as the only Senators representatives at the tournament.
Michalek Clears Final Hurdle
Ian Mendes Tweeted that Milan Michalek has passed his baseline test. With this obstacle out of the way, the team’s leading goal scorer has been deemed physically able to return to the lineup. Expect him back on December 27th in a game against the Montreal Canadiens.
Mike Hoffman Makes His NHL Debut Tonight
Yep…
Doug Gilmour (@Gilmour_93) Answers a @6thsens Tweet Question
Forgot to mention this earlier in the week but last weekend, the former Leafs Captain was on Twitter responding to questions from his followers. Here’s his response to the question that I posed:
Here’s the video of Alfredsson’s masterpiece:
SenatorsExtra Prediction Panel
Apparently I was the only panelist to pick the Hurricanes to win tonight. Tonight’s game features the two teams that have allowed the most goals in the NHL this season — both teams with 120 GA — so it could be a wild one. At least Alfie stands a fantastic chance of scoring his 400th career goal.
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