Monday LNN: Some Sens News, Tortorella Comes Out Swinging, Black Ice Premiere and more!

Welcome back for the last edition of Links, News, and Notes before training camp begins. No, I can’t believe it either.

• As we approach the start of training camp, things are starting to rev up in the nation’s capital. In the aftermath of the Season Start-Up event, Ian Mendes has a good round-up and analysis of the latest and greatest over at the Athletic. Lots to chew on in there, but one thing I keep coming back to is that although the impact of the hiring of Chris Phillips might not have any effect on the on-ice product, it is heartening that such a well-respected former player has been brought back into the fold.
• Stop me if you’ve already heard this, but the Ottawa Senators signed star centre Tim Stützle to a long-term extension last week. To my eyes, this was a fantastic piece of work from Pierre Dorion. Over at TSN, Travis Yost agrees with me and puts some numbers behind his reasoning.
• As has been noted in this space before, the combination of the Philadelphia Flyers’ dysfunction and John Tortorella’s whole shtick has the potential to be explosive. That said, I’m a bit surprised that the situation seems to be this charged before the season has even begun. I wasn’t expecting to read these types of reports until at least November.
• Over at ESPN.com, Greg Wyshynski has a good profile of Buffalo Sabres’ star prospect Owen Power. I’m not sure the Sabres have the horses to be competitive in what figures to be a very deep Atlantic Division, but there’s no denying there’s a lot of intriguing pieces and Power is very much at the forefront of a promising youth movement.
• When it comes to that Atlantic Division, last year was very much a case of the “haves” and the “have-nots”. Justin Bourne argues that this year could be different.
• Speaking of the Sabres, former goalie Ryan Miller was recently elected to the US Hockey Hall of Fame. He joins Steve Cash, a three-time Paralympic gold medal winner, twin sisters and U.S. Women’s National Team gold medal winners Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson and Monique Lamoureux-Morando, and the late Jim Johannson, a former USA Hockey Olympian and longtime executive.
• Matt Dumba, one of the founding members of the Hockey Diversity Alliance, recently sat down with Gino Reda to discuss his role in the documentary Black Ice. The film is currently showing at the Toronto International Film Festival./