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Mike Milbury Charged With Assault of a Minor; Penguins and Senators Gameday

December 16, 2011, 12:42 PM ET [ Comments]
Travis Yost
Ottawa Senators Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
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In the middle of writing my usual gameday column for the Pittsburgh Penguins and Ottawa Senators tonight, a rather unfortunate - and if true, disturbing - story has hit the newswire.

According to WCVB Boston, former Boston Bruin and current analyst for NBC Sports Mike Milbury has been accused and subsequently charged of assault and battery on a twelve-year old child at a local hockey rink.

Says the release:

Michael Milbury, who currently works as a hockey analyst for Versus NHL, was accused of assaulted a 12-year-old youth hockey player at the Dexter School Ice Rink in Brookline last week.

Milbury is an assistant coach of a local hockey team, and the alleged victim is a player from an opposing team.

Milbury played 12 seasons for the Bruins and was head coach for one season.


More on this as the story develops. Important to note that the details of this story are still developing, and all of the accusations and subsequent charges are simply alleged.

Gameday


On Friday night, the Ottawa Senators return to action after a rather disheartening loss against the Boston Bruins on Wednesday. To get back in the win column, they'll have to beat an undermanned but still incredibly skilled Pittsburgh Penguins team that's enjoyed success over the hometown team in recent years.

To call this a match-up of the battered may be a drastic understatement. On one side, Sergei Gonchar, Filip Kuba, and Milan Michalek - three key components of this team - are expected to miss tonight's game with injuries. On the other side, there's Sidney Crosby, Jordan Staal(questionable), Zbynek Michalek, Richard Park, Kris Letang, Dustin Jeffrey - yeah, it's a bit ugly.

Making matters slightly more amusing, both back-up goalies are expected to give it a go on Friday night, with Alex Auld squaring off against Brent Johnson. Auld's still searching for his first win of the season at 0-3-2, with a .875 save percentage and 3.43 GAA. Johnson's 2-3-2 on the year, with a .899 save percentage and 2.83 GAA.

While the two have turned into rather familiar foes thanks to a number of recent meetings in the post-season, it appears both sides are just looking to make it out of tonight's tilt relatively unscathed. Still, the points absolutely matter - Pittsburgh's already five back of the Philadelphia Flyers in the Atlantic division, and Ottawa's in a daily fight with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Buffalo Sabres, and Montreal Canadiens for playoff positioning. As of today, only three points separate the top - Toronto - from the bottom - Ottawa.

Even though Pittsburgh remains one of the stronger teams in the East, I think it's a decent spot for an Ottawa team looking to right the ship. Against Boston, the 5-2 final score didn't tell the real story, as the Senators skated with the Bruins - at some times, better - through the first forty minutes, and they're playing in their own barn. If Pittsburgh's vulnerable anywhere, it's on the road (9-7-2).

One notable change for the Ottawa Senators lineup past the goaltending swap - Peter Regin's expected to play the second-line center, moving Nick Foligno back to the wing. Imagine that will raise a few eyebrows from the fans, but let's see how it works.

Dial it back here for the post-game, as always. Puck drops at 7:30 PM ET on SNET-E.

Pittsburgh Penguins
Kunitz-Malkin-Neal
Dupuis-Staal-Kennedy
Sullivan-Vitale-Cooke
MacIntyre-Adams-Asham

Martin-Engelland
Orpik-Niskanen
Picard-Despres

Ottawa Senators
Greening-Spezza-Alfredsson
Foligno-Regin-Neil
Daugavins-Smith-Condra
Konopka-Winchester-Butler

Cowen-Karlsson
Phillips-Rundblad
Carkner-Lee

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Thanks for reading!
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