[Update #1: “Numerous Senators not at practice this afternoon – Bishop, Alfredsson, Karlsson, Turris amongst those missing – Craig Anderson taking part.” — @ScoreOttawa]
[Update #2: “Fitting choice and good chance to advance. Daniel Alfredsson is #Sens nominee for Masterton trophy for dedication + perserverance.” — @SeguinSports]
-Paul MacLean talked about last night’s game:
We’re happy to get a point on the road … but for the most part this team doesn’t bring out the best in us, for some reason. We have another opportunity on Friday to find a solution. We don’t seem to be able to skate the way we do when we’re successful, for whatever reason. We don’t skate very good against this team and we have to find a solution to that.
-The Sens confirmed the signing of Cole Schneider to a two-year ELC. Tim Murray talked about Schneider:
He’s a skilled left winger. He has good hands. He’s a tall kid, 6-2. Obviously has to get stronger, but … we saw him night after night at UConn, and he was the best player there. We just like his skill set, and we think he brings an offensive dimension to our team down the road. He’ll sign an ATO, go to Binghamton on Monday and start practicing Tuesday morning. And he signed a two-year entry-level contract starting in the 2012-2013 season. We had our guys identify him early in the year, and then we followed up on him a couple times in the last couple months here and watched him play a lot, and just liked what we saw.
Schneider said:
It’s really hard to leave the guys on the team, but in the end I had to do what’s best for me. Growing up, you dream of playing pro hockey and now I get to live that dream. The coaches really worked me hard this year. They got after me more and helped me improve what I needed to improve defensively. They helped me out with my all-around game really. The coaches were a huge part of this. Coming to UConn I never would have thought this was possible after two years, but they really helped me, probably more than they know.
–Rob Klinkhammer‘s fifth NHL game triggers the condition of the trade with Chicago in which Ottawa gives up their 7th round pick in 2013.
–Bobby Raymond scored a goal in Florida’s 8-3 win last night.
–John Henkelman updates Senator prospect rankings on Hockey’s Future‘s site. There’s no rationale provided for how the players were compared (presumably it’s based on performance, but it’s difficult to connect performance with the changes Henkelman made with his previous rankings). Nevertheless, the list makes for interesting food for thought.
1. Mika Zibanejad
2. Robin Lehner
3. Jakob Silfverberg
4. Stefan Noesen
5. Mark Stone
6. Mark Borowiecki
7. Stephane Da Costa
8. Patrick Wiercioch
9. Matt Puempel
10. Andre Petersson
11. Jim O’Brien
12. Shane Prince
13. Nikita Filatov
14. Derek Grant
15. Eric Gryba
16. Jean-Gabriel Pageau
17. Mike Hoffman
18. Fredrik Claesson
19. Ben Blood
20. David Dziurzynski
-Another college free agent possibility this year is Dutch national Nardo Nagtzaam, who just finished his freshman year at Mercyhurst University (37-11-19-30). Jack Prince, the English national playing for the NAHL’s Texas Tornado’s (46-31-31-62) might draw some interest, although he’s more likely to go on to play in the NCAA before getting NHL interest.
This article is written by Peter Levi, be sure to follow @eyeonthesens
