Ottawa Senators head coach D.J. Smith shared that forward Joshua Norris has suffered a setback with his shoulder injury. Norris had previously returned to practice in full, after working up from a no-contact jersey to taking full contact, but it seems he wasn’t ready just yet. No further details have been provided on the nature or timeline of Norris’ injury, bringing up questions about his availability for Ottawa’s season opener on October 11.
Norris’ shoulder injury is turning into a bit of a saga. The 24-year-old forward originally suffered the injury last October and worked to rehab with the hopes of a midseason return. And he was successful, appearing in the Senators lineup again in January. But after just three games back, Norris reaggravated his shoulder injury and was ultimately removed from the lineup for the remainder of the 2022-23 season.
Norris opened this year’s training camp wearing a no-contact jersey after “tweaking” his shoulder injury at the start of the year, but Senators general manager Pierre Dorion was optimistic about his outlook for the start of the year. And while Norris worked his way to full contact, continuing to hear about this long-running shoulder injury is disconcerting.
Other notes from around the league:
- Kyle Palmieri has returned to practicing with the rest of the Islanders roster, after being held separately for much of training camp. Palmieri entered camp nursing an undisclosed injury, with an undisclosed timeline, but his return to full practice is encouraging. Palmieri took reps on the team’s fourth line, alongside Brock Nelson and Pierre Engvall. His availability for the team’s final two preseason games is uncertain but he expressed optimism about being ready for the Islanders’ regular season opener.
- In a recent interview with the Sport Business Journal’s Alex Silverman, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said that finding a way to attend the 2026 Winter Olympics is a “primary focus” for the league. However, he also shared that, since new NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh joined the fold, the league has also been focusing on finding a way to hold a best-on-best tournament outside of the Olympics. The league is aiming to begin this in 2025, although Bettman noted that the world’s geopolitical situation makes a tournament like this challenging to assemble.
Olympics and other meaningless exhibitions just hold what matters hostage.
Olympics are NOT meaningless.
The others, it depends on who you talk to. It seems most players are FOR them. Some “fans”, no.
those meaningless exhibitions bring more revenue to the league and players so if they are willing to participate, can’t be that meaningless.
I know this is a lost argument, but the Olympics was meant for amateurs and I wish it went back to that, though it might not survive it.
Well, put Norris on season-opening LTIR and get Pinto signed NOW!
That should give the Sens some time to find their cap solution.
@Johnny Z – That’s mighty optimistic. GMPD had all summer to get it done right, and like the age-old statement from the guy after his accident, “I had to swerve three or four times until I hit the tree.” You and I both know that he doesn’t really have the ability to make good decisions in a compressed timeframe.
I’d prefer to watch the Laff-A-Lympics. My money is on the Yogi Yahooeys this year.