Day 1 of Senators training camp didn’t hand out many answers, but it did offer a clear glimpse of what Travis Green is trying to sort out.
With captain Brady Tkachuk gone, Ottawa is staring at the start of a different chapter. This is no longer just about making the playoffs for a third straight season. The bar has been raised, and the Senators are expected to push themselves into the conversation as legitimate Eastern Conference contenders.
That makes the early days of camp less about jobs and more about fit. Green said as much when asked about the opening groupings.
“We’ll see how practices go a little bit, but we have a plan,” Green said. “The one thing about our guys is that we don’t have a lot of new guys, and they know each other well. We’ll play it by ear.”
He also urged reporters not to put too much weight on the first wave of line combinations. Naturally, that’s the kind of warning nobody in a hockey market is actually going to obey.
Still, the initial setup was worth watching. William Eklund, acquired from the San Jose Sharks just 24 hours after Tkachuk was sent to the Florida Panthers in June, skated alongside Dylan Cozens and Fabian Zetterlund.
Tim Stutzle was paired with Andre Burakovsky and Drake Batherson. Ridly Greig centered Michael Amadio and Sammy Blais, while Shane Pinto worked between Nick Cousins and Phillip Tomasino.
Claude Giroux, meanwhile, found himself on what was effectively a fourth line with Stephen Halliday and Tyler Boucher.
On the blue line, Artem Zub was out while recovering from injury, which opened the door for rookie Carter Yakemchuk to skate beside Jake Sanderson on the top pair. Thomas Chabot and Jordan Spence formed another defensive duo.
None of it has to mean much by the time Ottawa opens the regular season against the Maple Leafs on Oct. 3 at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto. But camp has to start somewhere, and Green is clearly using these first sessions to see what works.
“Every coach wants to have lots of options,” Green said. “With our forward group, we’re going to have to make some decisions on our lineup, whatever we choose to do. It’s a nice option, and we’ll see how it plays out.”
The veteran who drew the loudest praise from Green was Giroux, who is 38.
“I thought G looked good today. He looked like he was 25 years old again. Honestly, but it’s not surprising,” Green said.
There’s also a sense that the expected Eklund-Stutzle connection may still be coming. Heading into camp, the assumption was that Eklund had been brought in to play with Stutzle, and that remains very much on the table. Burakovsky, for his part, had a chance to skate with Connor Bedard with the Chicago Blackhawks last season, so he’s familiar with what it takes to work alongside elite talent.
Stutzle said he isn’t overly concerned about who ends up beside him.
“There’s so many good players on this team, it doesn’t matter who we play with,” Stutzle said. “It’s going to be good either way.”
He also had a quick read on Burakovsky after the first practice.
“He’s a really fast guy. He plays hard on pucks, wins puck battles, and he can score.
He’s shown throughout his career that he’s a goal scorer, and he’s just a fast player. He can skate and flies up the ice, so it was a good first day,” Stutzle said.
One of the more interesting pairings came with Eklund and Zetterlund both skating beside Cozens, a look that could turn into something useful if it sticks.
And for Steve Staios, the Senators’ president of hockey operations and general manager, the offseason may have brought more change than he planned. Even so, a big part of Ottawa’s success this season is going to come from the players already in the room finding another level.
In Other News...
Senators Blue Line Move Raises New Concern About Artem Zub
The Senators have brought veteran defenseman Ben Hutton into training camp on a professional tryout, a move that adds some extra depth to a blue line already dealing with a familiar kind of uncertainty. Hutton arrives with more than 400 NHL games on his resume since 2015, giving Ottawa a seasoned option to look at while it sorts through the back end in camp.
His presence also puts a sharper focus on Artem Zubs status, with the defenseman currently unavailable. Ottawa is already trying to map out its early-season picture on the blue line, so any added help has a purpose beyond just filling a practice spot, and this latest move suggests the club still has questions it wants answered before camp settles in. [Read more 🡒]
Artem Zubs Camp Setback Creates An Early Senators Concern
The Senators are heading into camp with an early dent in their blue line plans, after the club confirmed Artem Zub will miss the first two weeks because of a lower-body injury. For a team trying to settle its defensive pairings and get on the ice with some continuity, any delay for a veteran minutes-eater matters, even if it comes before the real games begin.
There is at least one piece of reassurance for Ottawa in that Zub avoided surgery, which keeps the situation from sounding worse than it is at this stage. Still, the setback pushes back the start of his camp work and leaves the Senators waiting a little longer to see how quickly he can ramp back up once he is cleared to return. [Read more 🡒]
Leafs Quietly Made A Goalie Change Ottawa Fans Should Notice
The Maple Leafs have quietly adjusted to one of the NHLs lesser-known new requirements, and it is the kind of wrinkle Ottawa fans should at least keep an eye on when Toronto comes to town. Brendan Bonello, a 27-year-old from Mississauga with junior and minor pro experience, is now part of the Leafs game-night setup as the designated emergency backup goalie, giving Toronto its own built-in insurance policy under the leagues expanded coverage.
It is a notable shift from the old arrangement, when teams leaned on a local emergency goalie supplied by the home team if disaster struck in net. Now every club has to bring its own EBUG on the road, which means the Leafs are no longer depending on the arena down the street to solve a crisis. For Ottawa, it is another small but meaningful change in the rhythm of a Sens-Leafs matchup, especially in a season when every detail around the rivalry tends to get noticed. [Read more 🡒]