Thursday LNN: Captain Sanderson, No Olympics for the NHL and More
Here we go again....
Things haven’t been looking great foe the NHL and with all things considered, many people have other priorities to focus on even if Connor Hellebuyck thinks attending a hockey game is our saving grace. It’s not all doom and gloom though as we have some good Sens news from our most promising prospect and some other tidbits.
- Starting off with some Sens news as our up and coming defense phenom has been named Captain of Team USA in the upcoming World Juniors tournament. The Senators twitter account really hyped the news which was nice to see. He also joins a list of other Senators who have Captained their respective national teams including Tim Stützle and yes Curtis Lazar./
Jake Sanderson becomes the seventh #Sens prospect to be named a team captain at the @IIHFHockey World Junior Championship.
— Sens Communications (@Media_Sens) December 22, 2021
He is the second @Senators draft pick to lead the U.S. at the event (Berard, 1996) and is the first skater to wear the 'C' from the state of Montana. https://t.co/vWvvc6w7f8
- In not so shocking news, the NHL has officially announced that NHL players will not be participating in the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympics. It’s a smart move considering the recent rise in cases but also due to the unreasonable quarantine rules that China has put in place. It seemed like the decision was leaning towards not going ever since the NHL started cancelling games which added more disruption to the schedule.
- With the news of the NHL-Olympics dream falling apart, the focus shifts towards who is out there to make up a winning team that isn’t currently an NHLer. The Hockey News put together a roster which frankly does not inspire much confidence but it’ll be interesting to see the names that will continue to pop up.
- In the spirit of the holidays, Steven Psihogios from Yahoo sports put together a wish list for each team. For the Sens, it’s a goalie which I think is slightly unfair to our defensive woes. I have to say though, the one I agree with the most is the Seattle Kraken needing an identity.
- Alexander Ovechkin came into this season on a mission to break the elusive Wayne Gretzky, at least one of them anyways. He hasn’t disappointed so far as he’s been scoring at a ridiculous rate even for Ovi himself. If you had any doubt if he would actually break the record, Gretzky himself is assuring you that he most certainly will./
