SENATORS PLAY IT SAFE WITH VETERANS
Ottawa keeps number of starters out of scrimmage to avoid stupid injuries
Safety over stupidity.
That sums up the Ottawa Senators’ working philosophy during the opening weekend of training camp.
Already without Erik Karlsson and Derick Brassard as they recover from off-season surgeries, and without Clarke MacArthur following his failed openingday medical, the club was taking no chances with the health of its remaining veterans.
That helps explain why a score of regulars — including Craig Anderson, Mark Stone, Bobby Ryan, Jean- Gabriel Pageau, Mike Hoffman, Alex Burrows, Dion Phaneuf and Cody Ceci — saw little or no action during Sunday’s Fanfest intrasquad scrimmage at Canadian Tire Centre.
“One of the things we talked about is that we want guys to play hard, but we don’t want any of the stupidity on the ice like we saw last year, with the elbows, slashing some of the veterans on the ankles and stuff like that,” Senators coach Guy Boucher said following Sunday’s scrimmage. “I don’t think we had any stupidity out there. We had a few guys kind of looking at each other here and there, but that’s normal. We went through the first three days better than last year.”
Last year, you’ll recall, Stone suffered an opening day concussion when he took an elbow in the head and Fanfest was marred by the ugliness of Patrick Sieloff’s high hit that knocked out MacArthur for most of the season.
On Sunday, Sieloff and Stone had a staredown after Sieloff slashed Stone’s stick in half and Kyle Turris was seeing red after a scuffle with Macoy Erkamps, but nothing got out of hand.
Now the Senators are anxious for the opportunity to finally challenge another team, with pre-season games against Toronto Monday at the Canadian Tire Centre and Tuesday at the Air Canada Centre.
“I made it three more days in training camp already, so I’m happy about that,” Stone said with a smile.
“We’re in a situation where we don’t want to lose anybody. We want as healthy of a team as we can, but at same time, we’ve got things to work on. When you’re missing your top defenceman (Karlsson) and one of your top centres (Brassard) you need to find other players to contribute, so there are going to be a few things to work on in these exhibition games.”
Enter Thomas Chabot and Colin White, the Senators’ highly touted 2015 first-round draft picks who are both on the 23-player roster of potential players who could play Monday.
“White has shown us up to now that he’s a legitimate prospect and Chabot has shown us that he’s a legitimate prospect,” Boucher said.
“I’m not going to hide that, but there are other guys right now that are surprising and starting to make us think. That usually happens every year.”
White, who has spent the majority of the first three days playing on a line with Burrows, is content with how camp has gone so far. He’s naturally anxious to finally play against another team, and with a chance to go against Maple Leafs star Auston Matthews. Matthews and White played together on the U.S. national development team and on the U.S. world junior squad as teenagers.
“(Matthews) Snapchatted me, asking if I was playing,” White said.
“It’s exciting to be able to play in a game now, against a different team and treat it like a real game now. It will be a lot of fun.”
Chabot, meanwhile, could be paired with Dion Phaneuf, a sneak peak at a potential regularseason defence partnership.
Chabot will be playing on the right side. As a left shot, he typically played on the left side during his junior career, but for the Senators to best use his strengths, he’ll likely be more effective on the right side.
“With our systems and the way we play, a lot of our right-side defencemen are puck retrievers and that’s what Chabot is,” Boucher said.
“Our left side is guys who can step up and be hard. Not that Chabot can’t do that, but when you’re looking at young guys and to give them a fair chance, you want to give them a chance to put them at their strengths.”
Monday’s tentative Senators lineup also includes Johnny Oduya, the free-agent defenceman who has arrived as the de facto replacement for Marc Methot. Christian Jaros and Andreas Englund, the young physical defencemen who have impressed since the start of rookie camp, could also dress.
Up front, Ben Sexton — son of former Senators general manager Randy Sexton — and 2017 fourth-round pick Drake Batherson will be given a chance to see if they can keep up to the increased pace of an NHL exhibition game.
In terms of potential openingday line combinations, the Senators could also dress a trio of Ryan, Pageau and Stone.