According to the Ottawa Sun, center Jason Spezza is unlikely to play this week as he continues to recover from some undisclosed upper body injury. (Ed. note: likely his lower back.) While there's no timetable yet on a possible return, Bruce Garrioch is using Off The Posts to implore for Spezza to return to the lineup only when he's healthy.

There is good news on the injury front however. Apparently the severity of Anton Volchenkov's dislocated elbow isn't as bad as some had previously expected. Instead of a four-to-six week absence, a MRI has revealed that the Senators may only be without their best defenceman for another 10-14 days.The way that the Senators have played in his absence, I was starting to warm up to the idea that a one-armed A-Train might be more palatable than some of the incumbents. Besides, it's not like Volchenkov could shoot the puck and hit the net with two good arms. Just sacrifice the body and block some shots and we'll be all the better for it.

The Euge Doesn't Own the Ottawa Senators

In a story that ran in the UK's Daily Mail, a number of residents have submitted a petition to the Westminster City Council to shut down film director Guy Ritchie's Mayfair pub, The Punch Bowl. Now, it's not this petition that's of interest, it's this paragraph:

The campaign, led by Mayfair art dealer Alan Hobart and supported by Canadian property tycoon William Shenkman - owner of the Ottawa Senators ice-hockey team and a prominent donor to Tate Modern and the National Theatre - describes 'a severe downward spiral in quality of life for local residents' in the past 18 months.

Expect The Euge to respond in an appropriate manner to these erroneous facts sometime tomorrow on the Fan 590.

Scott Burnside Revisits the Heatley Deal

Predictably, Mr. Burnside is revisiting the Heatley return now that Milan Michalek's production has waned. Here's what he had to say:

It wasn't all that long ago that the Ottawa Senators didn't look so bad in the wake of the Dany Heatley trade with San Jose before the start of the season. But the tables have turned a bit, as Jonathan Cheechoo has continued to struggle with the Sens with only two assists and a minus-3 rating.

Milan Michalek leads the Sens with six goals, but three of them came in one game and he has not produced a point in the past four contests as the offensively challenged Senators have lost two in a row and four of five. Michalek has also chipped in just one power-play goal this season, one of the reasons the Sens rank 26th on the man advantage.

Heatley, meanwhile, has 17 points for the red-hot Sharks and has collected seven points in the past seven games, including a game winner against Colorado. The Sharks have jumped into first place in the Pacific Division thanks to a five-game winning streak and victories in seven of their past eight games. As we thought.

Don't you think Sens GM Bryan Murray wishes Heatley had accepted that deal to Edmonton? The Senators would now be the benefactors of a re-energized Dustin Penner.

Personally, I can't stand this need to engage in retrospective bullshit after a player has has a good week. It does nothing but piss me someone off. At the time, we knew we didn't get the best player or a fair return in the deal. However, there weren't (m)any trade partners. Milan Michalek was and is the best available talent that Ottawa could get for Heatley (my apologies Dustin Penner) and he's a great 2-way player that the organization can build around. Recently, his production has been down, but that's no doubt correlated to the loss of his linemate, Jason Spezza.

Granted, there are doubts that Jonathan Cheechoo is ever going to become a productive player. That being said, it's still too early to pass judgment. If he can improve his skating to help him keep up with the play or to create some more separation so that he can get some shots away, it could help. If he can't, god help Bryan Murray from getting that cap hit off of the books moving forward.

But in the meantime about time that people fuck right off with anything related to Dany Heatley and his ouster? We know and have accepted that he's going to get his points in San Jose.We're cool with this. If you want to come back after the season and analyze the trade then, cool. I'll be here. Until that time, fuck off. Got it? Great.

Peter Regin's From Denmark!?!

I've liked this kid since I had a chance to see him play last year. It seems like SLC from Five For Smiting is starting to come around. Maybe this feature in The Hockey News that discusses his background will allow you to learn something new. Or maybe it won't. Meh.

If Carrie Took Mike's Last Name, She'd Be The Second Celebrity Named Carrie Fisher That Nerds Would Jerk Off To

According to an AP article, Carrie Underwood has a new album dropping on Tuesday and one of the songs was influenced by the Senators' own #12. Here are the details:

"Mama's Song" is a straight-up love tune about helping a mother gain trust for a good man who wants to marry her daughter. The presence of her boyfriend, Ottawa Senators center Mike Fisher, can be felt on the song, the most personal of the seven Underwood wrote for the album.

Help her mom gain trust in Mike Fisher? I'm not surprised. Her mom probably bought the Center Ice package last year to watch him play and wondered what the hell he was doing out there on the power play. Thankfully, Mike's returned to form this year and Sens fans couldn't be happier.