Break out the money phones and call your friends, the Senators are opening their season against Evander Kane and the Winnipeg Jets. At least that is what's being reported by the Winnipeg Free Press anyways.
National Hockey League sources have told the Free Press the Jets will open their season Saturday, Jan. 19 at the MTS Centre against the Ottawa Senators, with a 1:30 p.m. puck drop.
This had been the rumour last week.
If true, this game will inevitably be this season's first broadcasted NHL game on CBC's Hockey Night in Canada. It's just too bad that both will be playing in their current incarnation of jerseys.
For all of the redundant talk about the season being a sprint, opening against a Jets team that has had its fill of offseason controversy — money phone Kane, Dustin Byfuglien's well-documented weight issues, Ondrej Pavelec's DUI in the Czech Republic — bodes well for Ottawa.
Whatever media distractions these create for their players can only help to serve Ottawa and other Eastern Conference teams hoping to figure into the playoff picture.
Of course it also helps Ottawa's case that they'll likely be facing Pavelec on opening day.
Looking at his numbers from the Liberec Bili Tygri HC during the lockout — a 4-10-0 record and a spotty 3.50 GAA and 896 SV% — it's obvious that the only recored number that was lower than those ugly peripherals was his reported blood alcohol level of .20.
Not too much to ask Spezza to one-up this, no?
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