Uncertainty hangs over Sens
Welcome back to another year of fun, games, distractions, injury setbacks and who-knows-what for the Ottawa Senators.
Barely one game into a new season and it’s oh-so-cloudy again inside the Canadian Tire Centre.
Let’s begin with the hint of uncertainty about Kyle Turris’s future in Ottawa as contract negotiations continue.
The talks — or at least talk about the talks — took a twist before Thursday’s season opening 5-4 shootout loss to Washington, when TSN’s Darren Dreger said the 28-year-old, pending unrestricted free agent centre will be traded “at some point”.
While neither Turris nor Senators general manager Pierre Dorion were talking publicly Friday, it’s believed that Turris and his agent, Kurt Overhardt, are asking for a contract extension of seven or eight years, too long for the Senators to stomach.
“I’m not going to talk about negotiations,” Overhardt said Friday in a telephone interview with Postmedia.
This much is crystal clear: If Dorion can’t come to terms with Turris, the Senators will have to deal him before losing him for nothing as a free agent next summer.
Yet committing to Turris for the long, long term would be tricky for the organization. Bobby Ryan (five years remaining) and Dion Phaneuf (four years left) are on their own long-term deals, while Mark Stone has restricted free agent status next summer and captain Erik Karlsson is due to become an unrestricted free agent himself following the 2018-19 season.
Now, back to the present, where Karlsson’s status for Saturday’s game against the Detroit remains unclear. Karlsson was on the ice for practice Friday and paired with Mark Borowiecki. Senators coach Guy Boucher at least opened the door for a possible return from his surgically repaired left foot.
“He looked great,” said Boucher. “It’s day to day, so any time now. I told him the day that (you are) ready, you tell me. And (Friday) he told me was doing great. That’s about it.”
Meanwhile, Johnny Oduya, the club’s highest profile summer signing on defence, is also iffy for the game because of a lower body injury suffered against Washington. He didn’t skate Friday.
If Karlsson and Oduya are both ruled out against Detroit, the Senators will need to recall a defenceman from the Belleville Senators of the AHL. Belleville opened its season Friday night against Laval.
“We have to see where all those guys are and make a decision,” said Boucher.
In terms of the forwards, the biggest news is that Alex Formenton is scheduled to make his NHL debut, replacing Logan Brown in the lineup.
Formenton, who turned 18 on Sept. 13, will become the youngest player in modern Senators history. Mika Zibanejad (18 years, 172 days) is the current recordholder. He will likely begin the game on a line with Nate Thompson and Alex Burrows.
“I wanted, as quickly as possible, to try and get both kids (Brown and Formenton) in and see how they’re managing stuff,” Boucher said. “(Detroit) has smaller, quicker, faster guys and that’s where Formenton has those qualities. I think it’s a perfect moment to get him in there, and the sooner, the better.”
After combining for three goals and four assists against Washington, the line of Bobby Ryan, Derick Brassard and Mark Stone will stay together, but Boucher will juggle elsewhere.
Turris will serve as a centre for Zack Smith and Ryan Dzingel. Jean-Gabriel Pageau will move to his natural centre spot from right wing, on a line with Mike Hoffman and Tom Pyatt.
Pageau will likely go head-tohead against Detroit star centre Henrik Zetterberg.
“I like to think about it a little bit before the game and look at the line-up and what it’s going to be like,” Pageau said. “But every team now has a couple of good lines, so it’s hard now to get a good match-up. We had some matchups (Thursday), but sometimes we lost those match-ups with the power play and penalty killing and they changed up, so it’s hard to get a perfect match-up.
“It’s always a personal challenge when you’re playing these skilled, talented guys and you take pride playing against them.”
With or without Karlsson, the Senators need to clean up their act inside their own blue-line. They were in control early in the third period against Washington, ahead 3-1, but a cascade of miscues — a Cody Ceci giveaway, a Zack Smith giveaway, Nate Thompson losing his man — paved the way for the Alex Ovechkin hat trick that tied the game 4-4. The Capitals then survived a Senators power play in overtime and won in the shootout.
“We didn’t get the result we wanted, but we did some good things and there are things we can work on,” said defenceman Chris Wideman, who scored a goal and an assist against Washington.
Boucher is confident that his team will fill in the cracks against Detroit.
Craig Anderson, who stopped 24 of 28 shots against Washington, will start in goal. kwarren@postmedia.com Twitter.com/Citizenkwarren