The Ottawa Senators have high aspirations this season after missing the playoffs the past six years.
But fate does not seem to be on their side a week before the season opener. We relied a lot on Josh Norris, the club’s No. 1 player two years ago before Tim Stuezel emerged with 55 points, including 35 goals, in 66 games.
Norris played only eight games last year due to a shoulder injury and has not played any preparatory games yet after feeling discomfort in the same area before the start of camp.
Norris returned to the ice this week and is expected to play in the team’s final preseason game Saturday against the Canadiens, but every precaution is being taken to avoid a relapse.
Science has made significant advances over the decades, and shoulder repairs have become increasingly safe. Josh Anderson has already revealed that one shoulder is stronger than the other. Coffield appears to have recovered well from a similar surgery.
Although he is preparing to return to the game and has had some contact in training, we hope his shoulder holds up. The step he had to take eight months after surgery, and a second on the same shoulder after 2019, is enough to raise some concerns.
“We thought he would be ready soon, and we’re trying to get him back in the game, but the player also has to be 100 percent,” coach DJ Smith told an Ottawa radio station this week. It also has to be 100% psychological. »
With salary cap restrictions, Ottawa also deprives its third-place finisher, Shane Pinto, of 35 points, including 20 goals, in his first professional season last year.
So the Senators find themselves with a midfield consisting of Stützle, rookie Ridly Greig, Rourke Chartier and Mark Kastelic. Gregg, 21, first-round pick, 28H In general, some hope appears, but in the role of the training environment. He scored 29 points in 39 games in the American League last year, and 9 points, including two goals, in 20 games in Ottawa.
Chartier (27 years old) is a professional player in the American League. The powerful Kastelic is placed only in the right chair within the fourth trio. He had 11 points in 65 games last year.
The Senators got off to a poor start last year with eight regular-season defeats in their first twelve games and missed the playoffs by six points. They started the previous year with a 4-15-1 record.
If they have another rough start to the season, already stuck under the salary cap and without a top-two pick in the last two rounds despite six bad seasons, heads might roll.
The new owner, Michael Andlauer, is giving the benefit of the doubt to the current managers, but his patience will have limits.
Quote of the day
I don’t want to get into crazy comparisons, but performance [Matthew] Poitras in Bruins camp reminds me of Patrice in some ways [Bergeron] 20 years ago.
andrew Rycroft, Bruins goalie number when Bergeron participated in that famous first training camp two decades ago, on X.
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