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D.J. Smith

Snapshots: Byron, Team Canada, Perbix

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Paul Byron can’t catch a break. The veteran forward has been limited to just 26 games this season due to injury. While many of these absences came while Byron was recovering from hip surgery, he has continued to be in and out of the lineup ever since he returned. The Montreal Canadiens announced that he was returning to the lineup on Tuesday night – but the return was short-lived. Less than two periods into the game, the Habs revealed that Byron has left the game and would not return due to a lower-body injury. Its unclear if this is another new injury or a reoccurrence of his hip issue. Either way, with just five games remaining in a lost season, it might be time for Montreal to simply shut Byron down for the year. Byron has one year remaining on his contract and will be back with the Canadiens in 2022-23 if he isn’t traded or bought out.

  • The Canadian entry into the upcoming IIHF World Championship may look very familiar to the fans of a Canadian NHL team. Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun writes that Senators head coach D.J. Smith, who will be an assistant for Team Canada, has recruited several of his star players to join the tournament. If healthy, Drake Batherson, Connor Brown, and Thomas Chabot will suit up for Canada. Health is a question though; Chabot is currently on the injured reserve with a fractured hand and Batherson and Brown have both missed time due to injury this season and may not rush to play extra games if those issues flare up.
  • Another notable name has entered the NCAA Transfer Portal. Defenseman Jack Perbix, an Anaheim Ducks fourth-round pick in 2018, is leaving the University of Minnesota. Most would have expected that if Perbix was leaving the Gophers, it would be for the NHL. Older brother Nick Perbix, a Tampa Bay Lightning prospect, signed his entry level contract last month after four years at St. Cloud State University. Rather than follow suit, Jack will instead stay in college for his senior year but will don a different jersey and have a different name on his degree.

Claude Julien To Lead Team Canada At World Championship

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4:30pm: The coaching staff has now been officially announced by Hockey Canada, along with the management staff consisting of Shane Doan, Rick Nash, and Scott Salmond. Doan and Nash won gold together at the event as players in 2007 and competed several other times together over the years.

10:40am: One way to get your name back into NHL coaching circles is to lead at an international tournament, and that appears to be the plan for Claude Julien. Darren Dreger of TSN reports that Julien will be named head coach of Team Canada for the upcoming IIHF World Championship, while Claire Hanna of TSN adds that D.J. Smith will be an assistant. The staff will be rounded out by Andre Tourigny, according to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic.

Julien, 61, was also the head coach of the recent Olympic squad for Hockey Canada, though he did miss part of the tournament due to an injury of his own. The veteran coach has been the bench boss of three different NHL organizations, leading the Montreal Canadiens on multiple occasions, most recently in the 2020-21 season. He was fired partway through that year, and has been on the sidelines since, waiting for another opportunity.

He’ll be joined by Smith, the head coach of the Ottawa Senators, and Tourigny, the head coach of the Arizona Coyotes. Both have some experience coaching at international events, with Tourigny assisting at last year’s World Championship that saw Canada win gold.

You can expect several players from the Coyotes and Senators to be involved, when the tournament gets underway next month. Connor Brown led last year’s event in scoring with 16 points in 10 games and would be a lock if he chooses to attend. Jack McBain of the Coyotes played at the recent Olympics under Julien and could be another option, while Drake Batherson could be a lead figure.

The event begins for Team Canada on May 13 with a preliminary round game against Germany.

Senators Add Several To COVID Protocol

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Dec 27: Less than a week later the Senators have added Anton Forsberg to the protocol, leaving the team without any active goaltenders on the roster. With postponements already announced yesterday, the team is not scheduled to play again until Friday.

Dec 21: The Ottawa Senators have added goaltender Filip Gustavsson, head coach D.J. Smith, video coach Mike King and three members of the team’s support staff to the COVID protocol. While the team is doesn’t have any games left this week, absences like this could leak over into the post-holiday schedule.

While Smith’s availability is obviously important, it’s Gustavsson’s placement that might be the most disappointing. The young netminder certainly doesn’t need to miss any time during this crucial development season, his first with regular playing time in the NHL.

With him out, it will be interesting to see if Matt Murray gets the call back to the NHL, something the Senators had promised would eventually happen after he was sent down earlier this season. Murray has a .918 save percentage in the minor leagues, but it’s been in only two appearances as he has dealt with injuries.

The Senators already dealt with a serious outbreak earlier this season, hopefully, this one will remain contained to just a few people.

Artem Zub Leaves Game With Upper-Body Injury

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Things continue to get worse in terms of the amount of personnel available for the Ottawa Senators. Defenseman Artem Zub left Thursday’s game against Los Angeles with an upper-body injury, and head coach D.J. Smith says there’s “no update” on his status.

Ottawa is already without nine players due to COVID-19 protocol, including defensemen Nikita Zaitsev, Josh Brown, Victor Mete, and Nick Holden. The team is down to just nine healthy defensemen under NHL contracts now, as Jacob Bernard-Docker, Maxence Guenette, and Jonathan Aspirot remain with AHL Belleville.

The team’s depth is stretched extremely thin, as many young players are now getting NHL time sooner than expected. 2019 first-round selection Lassi Thomson made his NHL debut Thursday in place of Zaitsev.

If Zub is to miss any period of time, Bernard-Docker is the obvious choice to come up from Belleville. The 21-year-old right-shot defenseman does not require waivers and got into five games with the Senators at the tail end of last season.

Zub himself was having a great start to the 2021-22 season, notching five assists in 12 games while working his way up to the team’s top pairing with Thomas Chabot. He’s been Ottawa’s most responsible defenseman since joining the team prior to 2020-21, now averaging nearly 23 minutes a night this season.

Injury Notes: Canadiens, Lightning, Watson

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The Montreal Canadiens are facing two big game-time decisions for Sunday’s game against the Anaheim Ducks in defenseman Jeff Petry and forward Brendan Gallagher, as reported by The Athletic’s Arpon Basu. Basu notes that Sami Niku will draw in for Petry if he’s unavailable, while Jake Evans, who’s still not 100 percent in his recovery from an undisclosed injury, would play in place of Gallagher if needed. It’s tough news for an already banged-up team that also lost Mathieu Perreault to injury today for two-to-three weeks. Petry and Gallagher have both had extremely slow starts, as Petry has no points through nine games with Gallagher has just a goal and an assist. It’ll undoubtedly force a lineup shakeup for Sunday’s game.

More injury notes from around the league:

  • The status of Tampa Bay Lightning forwards Steven Stamkos and Boris Katchouk is uncertain for Monday night’s game against the Washington Capitals. The Athletic’s Joe Smith reports that Stamkos was absent from practice Sunday, taking a maintenance day, and head coach Jon Cooper is “hopeful” he’ll play Monday night but isn’t certain. Katchouk was hurt in practice Sunday and could be out longer. The 23-year-old forward has gotten into four games this season and is still searching for his first NHL point.
  • Ottawa Senators forward Austin Watson is close to returning and could be ready for the team’s game against the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday, per head coach D.J. Smith. Watson hasn’t played this season due to an ankle injury suffered during training camp. The return comes slightly ahead of the four-week timeline issued on October 10th. He could draw into the lineup in place of Logan Shaw, who’s registered no points in seven games while playing just 8:08 per game.

Injury Notes: Klingberg, Senators, Dowd

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It looks like the Dallas Stars will receive a huge boost for their game against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday night in the form of a healthy John Klingberg. Head coach Rick Bowness said Sunday morning that Klingberg “should” return, but that the team won’t have full confirmation until tomorrow. The 29-year-old defenseman was injured in the team’s season opener and missed the succeeding four games, playing just 10:21 before suffering a lower-body injury. He’ll look to provide a boost with his offensive instincts to a team that’s scored just ten goals through their first five games.

More injury notes from around the league:

  • There’s some updates on the injury front in Ottawa, as TSN reports goalie Matt Murray has been moved to injured reserve with a neck injury after being run into by the Rangers’ Chris Kreider on Saturday afternoon. He’ll miss at least the next ten days. It also appears center Shane Pinto will be out for a shorter term than expected, as head coach D.J. Smith he’s only expected to be absent for a week or two. A prompt return would be a good break for both him and the team, as Pinto had begun to impress in a top-six role.
  • Washington Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette says the status of Nic Dowd for the team’s one-game road trip to Ottawa on Monday night is in question. Dowd is day-to-day with a lower-body injury. He played in all of the team’s overtime loss to the Calgary Flames on Saturday, so even if he does miss that contest, it doesn’t appear he’ll be out for any sort of term. The native of Huntsville, Alabama has one goal in five games this season.

Brady Tkachuk To Make Season Debut On Thursday

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Winger Brady Tkachuk will make his season debut for the Ottawa Senators on Thursday against the San Jose Sharks, Senators head coach D.J. Smith confirms.

The Senators have a three-day break ahead of them after playing three games in four nights to open the season. Without their best forward in the lineup, the team impressed, starting the season off 2-1-0.

Tkachuk’s season debut will come at home after appearing in street clothes during the team’s season opener last Thursday at home against the Toronto Maple Leafs to a standing ovation. The Senators signed Tkachuk to a seven-year, $57.5MM contract earlier on that Thursday.

He’ll undoubtedly get slotted on the team’s first line in his return, reuniting as a trio with Josh Norris and Drake Batherson. That line impressed all last season in its first year of existence, seeing its members score 17 goals apiece and at least 30 points apiece in a shortened 56-game season.

The team has risen to its 2-1-0 start largely due to the impressive play of Anton Forsberg and Filip Gustavsson in the net. Despite that record, the Senators have scored only seven goals in their first three games, averaging 2.33 per contest. Tkachuk’s infusion into the lineup and the depth advantage that it provides will undoubtedly go a long way towards boosting those numbers.

Austin Watson Out Four Weeks For Ottawa Senators

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Ottawa Senators head coach D.J. Smith confirmed today that forward Austin Watson will be out of the lineup for four weeks. The veteran winger sustained an ankle injury during the preseason.

Things are turning sour quickly for the Senators, who’ll now be without both Watson and Colin White, as well as potentially Brady Tkachuk, for their season opener. They’ll play their first game of the 2021-22 season at home on Thursday against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Watson, largely brought into Ottawa for his grit and fighting ability, has been a remarkably consistent bottom-six player over the past few seasons. He made his impact felt during his first season in Ottawa last year, tallying three goals and 10 points in 34 games while adding on 40 penalty minutes.

Now 29 years old, the Ann Arbor, Michigan native spent eight years in the Nashville Predators organizations before moving to Ottawa prior to last season. He was a first-round pick of the Predators in 2010, drafted 18th overall. Watson has 39 goals and 87 points in 340 career games.

If Ottawa needs a physical presence while Watson is on the shelf, they could look to Scott Sabourin as an internal replacement. Largely a career AHLer, Sabourin got into 35 games with the Sens back in 2019-20 and could reprise his role as an enforcer again.

Training Camp Notes: Kane, Toews, Senators

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Today marked the first day of training camp for the majority of teams across the league. With the first preseason tilt just two days away now, teams are getting fired up and ready to go see at what level players in their organization are able to perform. One team whose offseason led to much fanfare was the Chicago Blackhawks, and the health status of both of their stars were hot topics of discussion today. NBC Sports Chicago’s Charlie Roumeliotis reports that a nagging injury to star winger Patrick Kane, an undisclosed matter that had appeared before the start of the Edmonton bubble in 2020, hasn’t healed completely. However, neither Kane nor others in the organization are concerned about his ability to play through the matter, as Kane himself remarked today that he’s “optimistic with where [he’s] going.” A great sense of mysteriousness still veils whatever the nagging issue is, as the nature of the injury has yet to be reported.

More notes from today’s opening of training camps:

  • After missing the entirety of 2020-21 due to Chronic Immune Response Syndrome, it was reported earlier in the offseason that Chicago Blackhawks Jonathan Toews was expected to return to play this year. Roumeliotis reports that after summer workouts, Toews rejoined the team today for his first formal practice since 2020. It would be a huge add for Chicago to get their captain back into the fold after an offseason that saw them forge a deeper team throughout. While Toews’ practice today went well, he hopes for but won’t guarantee an opening night appearance when their season opens in Colorado on Wednesday, October 13.
  • The contract negotiation saga of Brady Tkachuk has largely been an arduous, open-to-the-public process that continues to plant nervousness in Senators fans. It’s come to a head in recent days, as training camp has now begun without Ottawa’s best forward in the fold. The Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch reports that in his absence, they’ve kept the other two-thirds of his line together in Josh Norris and Drake Batherson. While it’s anybody’s guess on who could fill that role during play if Tkachuk misses the start of the season, head coach D.J. Smith used forward Nick Paul in that first-line left-wing role today. Potentially a sign of things to come, it’s still anything but a guarantee.

Snapshots: Senators, Slepets, Rossi

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As the Ottawa Senators look to finally move past their extended rebuild and take a step toward relevance this season, it is about time they name a leader of this next stage for the franchise. Speaking with the Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch, Senators head coach D.J. Smith stated that “It’s time for someone to be the leader of this group.” Smith believes that Ottawa is ready to name a captain after a three-season hiatus and tells Garrioch that he intends to speak with owner Eugene Melnyk and GM Pierre Dorion about making a decision before the end of training camp. The last player to wear the “C” was Erik Karlsson during the 2017-18 season and the Senators have used only alternates in the years since. However, with young defenseman Thomas Chabot signed long-term and young forward Brady Tkachuk hoping to join him for years to come, the Senators have two players that can be the face of the franchise for many years and either one would be a good pick as captain. Which one will be a difficult and important decision for the young locker room, which is why the organization’s leaders have taken their time and will still wait to name a captain until closer to the beginning of the season.

  • The odds of Carolina Hurricanes prospect Kirill Slepets making the jump to North America any time soon took another hit today. Just two weeks ago, Slepets re-signed in the KHL on a one-year deal with Spartak Moscow. The move came on the heels of a poor season for Slepets in which he played exclusively in the second-tier VHL rather than the KHL and led some to believe that the 22-year-old may cross the pond to continue his development. Instead, he stayed in Russia and after today’s trade may be settling in for an extended stay. Spartak has traded Slepets to his hometown team, Amur Khabarovsk, the club announced. Going the other way was former NHL forward Andrei Loktionov, proving that Slepets still has value in the KHL despite a down year. He has even more value to Amur, who are very excited to bring the prodigal son home and could be able to convince him to stay long-term. The 2019 fifth-round pick remains an interesting project to watch for the Hurricanes, especially given the ability he flashed at the junior level, but his NHL future is more in doubt now than ever.
  • Minnesota Wild prospect Marco Rossi has no doubt that he is ready to compete for an NHL roster spot after missing this past season due to an extensive battle with COVID-19. The 2020 No. 9 overall pick has been working out hard to get back into game shape and will get his first test this week suiting up for Austria in the Olympic qualifiers. However, he is already looking ahead to Wild training camp and is confident that he can make impact in Minnesota this year. Talking to The Athletic’s Michael Russo, Rossi stated the following:

I know I haven’t played a lot of games in the last year, year and a half, but now that I can see my fitness level and my shape, I know I’m better in shape than a lot of NHL players. I see no doubt about it that I can play in the NHL. I know I can play there. I know how good I am, but I have to prove myself in training camp that I’m ready for that. I know it’s going to be up to me to show I’m ready to play right away.

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