After a full day off capped by a big fundraising gala, the Senators got back to business ahead of tomorrow's home-ice contest with the scorching Florida Panthers.
And from the ice, there was a lot of much-needed good news on the injury front. Cody Ceci and Milan Michalek both took regular turns at practice and could be back in the lineup as soon as Thursday. Mika Zibanejad was in his 2nd line centre spot following the scary stick near the eye incident early in Monday's win in St. Louis. And finally, Clarke MacArthur skated on his own before practice, which is encouraging although not going to provide immediate help.
So this creates a log-jam on the roster, assuming both Ceci and Michalek come off IR. David Dziurzynski was put on waivers, and the odd men out of the normal rotation were Chris Wideman and Jared Cowen on the blue line and Shane Prince up front.
Ryan-Turris-Stone Hoffman-Zibanejad-Michalek Lazar-Pageau-McCormick Chiasson-Smith-Neil
Claesson-Karlsson Wiercioch-Ceci Methot-Borowiecki Cowen-Wideman
The most interesting part is Claesson, going from minor leaguer to top pair defenseman. Claesson jumped from 12 minutes in his first game to over 20 in his second. That is fine, but I don't understand the insistence of going with a Ceci-Wiercioch duo, especially with Methot now available to stabilize Ceci on the second pair. If it were me, it would be Wideman in instead of Wiercioch and playing with Borowiecki.
But we will wait and see how things turn out tomorrow.
----
There were a few surprises when the NHL announced the full rosters for the All-Star game later this month. Joining John Scott (seriously) and Jaromir Jagr in Nashville will be Erik Karlsson, which will surprise no one, as the lone Senators representative. P.K. Subban, Aaron Ekblad, Ben Bishop, Roberto Luongo, Patrice Bergeron, Ryan O'Reilly, Steve Stamkos, Dylan Larkin and Leo Komarov will join Karlsson and Jagr on the Atlantic Division squad.
While the game is purely part of a glad-handing showcase for sponsors, there are certainly a lot of problems with the selection process. Scott's ridiculous admittance (and him accepting the nod) is certainly at the top of the list, but the rosters are also rather restrictive. Henrik Lundqvist is not an all-star but John Gibson, who had played only 15 games is, because of the dreadful goaltending in the Pacific Division.
Requiring each team represented is restrictive enough with no young-stars game to shuffle representation over to if a team didn't have someone in the main event. Having just 3 lines for a full 20 minutes of 3-on-3 is going to mean a much slower pace over the second half of the periods because they won't be able (or willing for that matter) to put it all out there. A 4th line on each team would be welcome and allow for more deserving players (how is Duncan Keith not an All-Star?) to be named.