Monday LNN: Formenton Lawsuit, Barzal Injury, Four Nations Rosters
The Sens are over .500 in November?!
The Ottawa Senators are coming off two of their best performances of the young season. On Friday night, they got goalie'd by Igor Shesterkin and fell to the New York Rangers, but on Saturday they were not the victims of bad luck and triumphed handily over the Seattle Kraken. How am I feeling about where the Sens sit after 11 games? Pretty positive on the whole, probably best described as cautiously optimistic. We've seen stretches of strong play from this group before: keeping it up for longer than five games at a time is the challenge. We'll learn more this week.
As for the news from around the hockey world:
-Former Senator Alex Formenton has filed a $20.5MM lawsuit against Newport Sports Agency and his former agent Wade Arnott.
-Over at Sportsnet, Alex Adams has some thoughts on where things stand for the Sens after 11 games. I've commented on it before, but Adams picks up one of the best surprises of the young season: the success of the Tyler Kleven-Jacob Bernard-Docker pairing. They are getting pretty cushy deployment, but they are doing very well in those minutes – and that's all you can really ask of your third pairing. Something to watch as the season goes on.
-Meanwhile, for the Athletic, Julian Mackenzie had this to say about the Sens' biggest concern so far this season:
The defense: The Sens defense has had good moments like an 8-1 domination over the St. Louis Blues. But they’ve still allowed three goals or more in the majority of games. The Senators have also adjusted to life without Artem Zub, who normally plays alongside Jake Sanderson, and are making the most of their Jacob Bernard-Docker—Tyler Kleven pair. But if the Sens want to compete, they will still need an extra defender. — Julian McKenzie
-The New York Islanders are not off to the greatest start to the year, and things are only looking worse with the news that Mathew Barzal has been placed on long-term injured reserve. To make matters even worse, they have to play the Sens this week.
-I did not think it would be possible, but the way that Alex Ovechkin has been scoring so far this year, the all-time goals record could be in play. With another goal on Sunday against the Carolina Hurricanes, Ovechkin is up to 860 for his career, and needs just 35 the rest of the way.
-The perpetually underrated Nikolaj Ehlers became the all-time leading scorer among Danish NHLers yesterday when he tallied his 474th career point, passing Frans Nielsen, aka the "Danish Backhand of Judgement".
-Over in Montreal, Eric Engels has a piece wondering what the Montreal Canadiens need to do to get their confidence back. I'm not sure that confidence is really the issue, though; that team is just not very good.
-With the Four Nations tournament rapidly approaching, get ready for lots of columns attempting to predict the various rosters. Everyone's entitled to their guesses, but I would be floored if Owen Power is on Team Canada, for example.
