TSN: Frankie Corrado on the Ottawa Senators center position with Josh Norris’ injury concerns and Shane Pinto still without a contract.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
“It’s starting to get very concerning for the Ottawa Senators. Their lack of depth down the middle of the ice. And that’s something that’s supposed to be a strength for this team when you think about, they would have (Tim) Stutzle into Norris into Shane Pinto. That’s a great trio right down the middle of the ice.
And with Josh Norris having a setback in practice, it just doesn’t bode well for them. For Josh Norris, he’s a player that’s been injured a lot over the last few seasons. He shouldn’t be having setbacks at this point. He should be on the roads to playing games and it’s something that the Ottawa Senators, it’s the reality of a player that’s been injured a lot. But it shouldn’t be the case.
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It provides an opportunity now for the Sens to get this Shane Pinto deal done. But if they don’t get it done, they’re not going to have two keep pieces down the middle of the ice and if you take a look at the teams that they’re going to be playing against in the Atlantic division, strength down the middle of the ice is an MO for a lot of those teams.
So for the Ottawa Senators, it hasn’t been great to getting off to good starts for them in the past few seasons, and with all this happening at the start of the season, doesn’t bode well for them and their playoff chances. As we know, they’ve been behind the eight ball so many times early in the season and they haven’t been able to crawl themselves out of it.
Josh Norris is a great player. When he’s healthy he’s absolutely a second-line center in the NHL and has the potential to be one of the better second-line centers.
Shane Pinto, the sky is the limit for him. He’s good enough to be a key contributor on an NHL team and at some point will be much higher than a third-line center in the NHL. But him missing training camp is not going to do him any favors when he does eventually return to the lineup.
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So Josh Norris’ injury concerns are going to be a big issue for the Ottawa Senators. Shane Pinto not being at camp is another concerning issue for the Ottawa Senators. A position of strength down the middle turns into a position of weakness very quickly without those two players.