LNN: Zub Out For a While, Point Streaks, Team Sale and More

Another day, another dollar am I right? With the Ottawa Senators coming off back-to-back wins over the weekend, you wouldn’t be blamed for feeling like the good vibes might just last forever. Alas, Monday comes for us all. Luckily we have Links, News, and Notes to help ease us back into the pain of working for a living:

• I’m a big believer in hearing the bad news first, so we should get this out of the way off the top. Artem Zub’s injury appears to be at least moderately serious, as Darren Dreger is reporting the defender will miss extended time after taking a puck to the face on Friday vs. the New York Rangers:/

Have to see what follow up medical evals indicate, but hearing Senators defenceman Artem Zub could be out 2-3 weeks after taking a puck in the face on Friday.

— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) December 5, 2022

• The sale of the Senators appears to be closing in on the finish line. Ian Mendes breaks down the latest for the Athletic ($). There are a lot of really great details in there, and I implore you to read the piece if you want to be up to date. The biggest stand-out section to me:/

While the actual debt load being carried by the franchise is unknown, sources with direct knowledge of the financials involved estimate the Senators likely owe in the neighbourhood of at least $300 million.

It has long been common knowledge that the issue hampering the Sens’ financial viability was debt servicing, but I don’t believe we’d ever seen even a estimate of the size of the debt before. Interest on $300 million is a lot of money!

• Mendes also has a fun little article about the wild sequence towards the end of the game against the San Jose Sharks that ended with Claude Giroux’s slapshot goal on a break-away. /

In case anyone needs reminding:

One more time to start your Sunday off right pic.twitter.com/88VeAHQn2m

— Jack Richardson (@jackrichrdson) December 4, 2022

• Over in Maple Leafs land, Mitch Marner now holds the single longest point scoring streak in team history at 19 games. Marner’s collected 26 points over the course of his hot run of play.
• Speaking of point streaks, Jason Robertson is on an even bigger heater than Marner with 34 points in his last 18 games played. It’s led to some to wonder if he might be a Hart contender. I’m not sure he’s a contender for the top spot, but he’s probably one of the ten best players in the league; the man is exceptionally good!
• The Vancouver Canucks’ season has been mostly a nightmare so far, and things got a bit worse when it was announced on Saturday that Thatcher Demko will be out six weeks with a lower body injury.
• Over at ESPN, Greg Wyshynski has a cool piece on the resurgence of the three NHL teams in the New York Metro area. If all three teams qualify for the post-season, it will be the first time since 2006-07. The term gets thrown around a lot, but the league is more fun when the New York teams are good.
• Lastly, entering the season, the general consensus was that the Leafs had a strong roster but potentially porous goaltending. It brings me no pleasure to say that so far, the goalies are holding up their end of the bargain. Travis Yost digs into the numbers for TSN./