Break out the money phones and call your friends, the Senators are opening their season against Evander Kane and the Winnipeg Jets. At least that is what's being reported by the Winnipeg Free Press anyways.  

National Hockey League sources have told the Free Press the Jets will open their season Saturday, Jan. 19 at the MTS Centre against the Ottawa Senators, with a 1:30 p.m. puck drop.

This had been the rumour last week.

If true, this game will inevitably be this season's first broadcasted NHL game on CBC's Hockey Night in Canada. It's just too bad that both will be playing in their current incarnation of jerseys.

For all of the redundant talk about the season being a sprint, opening against a Jets team that has had its fill of offseason controversy -- money phone Kane, Dustin Byfuglien's well-documented weight issues, Ondrej Pavelec's DUI in the Czech Republic -- bodes well for Ottawa.

Whatever media distractions these create for their players can only help to serve Ottawa and other Eastern Conference teams hoping to figure into the playoff picture. 

Of course it also helps Ottawa's case that they'll likely be facing Pavelec on opening day. 

Looking at his numbers from the Liberec Bili Tygri HC during the lockout -- a 4-10-0 record and a spotty 3.50 GAA and 896 SV% -- it's obvious that the only recored number that was lower than those ugly peripherals was his reported blood alcohol level of .20.

Not too much to ask Spezza to one-up this, no?

A day after Bryan Murray's first radio interview in months, Paul MacLean joined TGOR this morning as part of a whirlwind tour that saw him appear on Team 1200 as part of the Senators media blitz that is taking fold, trying to drum up and generate interest in a NHL product that has left such a sour taste in the mouths of fans. Fortunately for the Senators, MacLean comes across as such a candid and down to earth individual, he's a perfect ambassador to represent the franchise. 

Please note MacLean did hit on a few things that I did not bother to include in this post, so if you wish to listen to the full interview, you can do so here, or via streaming the embedded audio below.

As always, my thoughts will be in bold.

After a dreadfully slow last few months, I'm not sure I could have prepared for today's onslaught of Senators news. Not that I'm complaining mind you, it was a refreshing change of pace that culminated with Senators GM Bryan Murray making an appearance on this afternoon's edition of The Drive. 

Murray did hit on a few things that I did not bother to include in this post, so if you wish to listen to the full interview, you can do so here, or via streaming the embedded audio below.

As always, my thoughts will be in bold.

The Ottawa 67's have been out of it for weeks, and didn't shy away from telegraphing a move like this was possible. Days ago Tyler Graovac was moved to Belleville, and this afternoon Cody Ceci was traded to the Owen Sound Attack:

Cody Ceci, Steven Janes, and 3rd round pick have been traded to Owen Sound for Jacob Middleton and Joseph Blandisi >>> ow.ly/gBY7A

— Ottawa 67's (@Ottawa67sHockey) January 7, 2013

Ceci played 238 games for the 67's through four seasons, scoring 41 goals, 105 assists and added 20 points in 34 postseason contests.

The Ottawa native taken 15th overall by the Senators in the 2012 draft and was named co-captain of the 67's with Sean Monahan in September. And while Ceci's production has been solid - 40 points in 42 games, the team around him has struggled (this graph gives you some idea just how bad a possession team they are), the 67's currently sit last in the OHL. There was also some surprise when Ceci was not invited to the Canadian WJC camp, a decision that puzzled many inside and outside Ottawa.

A trade to a contender was the best thing that could of happened for his development. In comments to the Citizen today, Ceci relayed the Senators were expressing the same sentiment:

"I talked with the Senators about the potential for a trade and they seemed to think it was better for me to play on a contender than finish here so I'm happy that a lot of people agree on that."

The London Knights are the class of the OHL, but Owen Sound is right there in the next tier. Ceci will give them a boost and vice versa. Unfortunately the Senators 2012 third-round pick Jarrod Maidens remains out of the Attack lineup, so it's unlikely we'll see them playing together during this stint.

There was some question whether the Senators would invite Ceci to a shortened training camp (likely to start Saturday), though Bryan Murray in comments to the Team1200 today said he would be attending.

Bananas, it feels good to be writing down some hockey-related blurbs that that deal with the promise of new games.

In the wake of the lockout ending, the Senators organization conducted their first press conference this afternoon featuring President Cyril Leeder and head coach Paul MacLean. The media  addressed a number of items that were so eloquently captured in 140 characters or less by the likes of Sylvain St-Laurent (@syl_st_laurent), Daniel Slater (dslatertv), Ken Warren (@citizenkwarren), and Don Brennan (@sundonib). Midseason form fellas.

Amongst the news, here’s what we know:

- Leeder indicated that the 48-game NHL season would conclude on April 25^th or 26^th, but had no information pertaining to its start date. (Note: speculation is that it will start on January 19^th.)

- Paul MacLean affirmed that fewer than 30 players would participate in camp, however, he remained noncommittal when answering questions as to whether both Ben Bishop and Robin Lehner would be invited to camp.

- While emphasizing that Craig Anderson would remain the team’s number one goalie, MacLean expressed confidence in both Bishop and Lehner to perform and said that the best goaltender would get the opportunity to play. The cynical side of me looks at Bishop’s one-way deal, the fact that Lehner has never demonstrated an ability to be a workhorse in the AHL’s regular season and makes me think that it’s Bishop’s job to lose.

- Although the organization laid off 35 employees during the lockout, they have been called back. Another 25 employees were hired to account for the start of the NHL season.

- The Senators’ season ticket base is down by 800 from 11,300 to 10,500, a 7% drop. This is certainly a different number than what the organization told the Globe and Mail last week, which reported, "the Ottawa Senators have had less than 1 per cent of their 11,300 season ticket base walk away". Leeder expressed confidence in being able to get back to that benchmark and exceeding it; announcing a goal to eventually reach 13,000 season ticket holders. Although he's been saying that for some time now.

More on Cody Ceci's trade to the Owen Sound Attack and GM Bryan Murray's appearance on the Team 1200 later. 

A tentative agreement has been reached between NHL and NHLPA - source

— Pierre LeBrun (@Real_ESPNLeBrun) January 6, 2013

Tentative agreement reached between NHL and NHLPA

— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) January 6, 2013

Lockout is tentatively over.

— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) January 6, 2013

Sportsnet learned 64.3m final cap hit.

— Nick Kypreos (@RealKyper) January 6, 2013

May take a day or two or three to figure out for sure how many games we're playing and start date.

— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) January 6, 2013

Let the record show the news came down at 5:09am.

The will they or won't they speculation ended with this joint Bettman/Fehr press conference shortly before 6am...they looked tired, but Gary proclaimed - "the basic framework of a deal has been agreed upon" :

NHL Board Of Governors and the NHLPA membership still have to ratify the deal, but that all seems a formality right now.

And here's a few more early details:

As per @jsportsnet #NHL teams will only play within conference, league to start as early as Jan. 15

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) January 6, 2013

Further to @aaronward_nhl reporting Year 2 cap at $64.3 M, I can add that Year 2 floor will be $44 M

— Pierre LeBrun (@Real_ESPNLeBrun) January 6, 2013

Sources tell Sportsnet new #CBA deal includes revenue sharing at 200M plus 60M growth fund.

— Nick Kypreos (@RealKyper) January 6, 2013

Draft lottery will change. All 14 teams fully eligible for 1st pick overall. Weighting system may remain, but 4-move restriction out.

— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) January 6, 2013

Player contract term limit at 7 years (8 years for your own player).

— Pierre LeBrun (@Real_ESPNLeBrun) January 6, 2013

Salary arbitration walkaways: cannot happen unless player award is at least $3.5 million, indexed to increase every year at rate salaries do

— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) January 6, 2013

Opening of training camp either Wed, Thur or Fri. Depends on ratification.

— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) January 6, 2013

Think I'm about 75% bitter and 25% excited.

Go SNES.

Fresh off his appointment as head coach for the Eastern Conference in the AHL All-Star Game, Luke Richardson made his weekly appearance on The Drive. As has become the norm, I've parsed his appearance below to include the information that I found to be interesting. The complete interview can be found here, or by streaming the audio embed below. 

My thoughts and comments in bold.

Game 1 @ Winnipeg?

Jets scheduled to play Sens at MTS on Jan. 19th at 1 p.m. if new 48-game season starts on the 19th, that date likely holds #nhljets #bn

— gary lawless (@garylawless) January 3, 2013

Would be a big break to face Byfuglien before he's into game shape.

Wikstrand To Play For Gold On Saturday

While the Swedes won their group, I'm not sure many would have pegged them as a favourite in their semi-final with Russia today. The first period was a possession masterclass from the guys in blue and yellow, jumping out to a quick 2-0 lead. Eventually the home team found their legs and began to take over; drawing even at 2-2 eight minutes into the third. It was a tremendous game with some brilliant end-to-end stretches, eventually going the full distance to a shootout - with Sweden winning on a vicious Collberg backhander.

Wikstrand's game was generally solid considering the quality of opponents he was getting matched against. There were a few instances where he struggled with the Russian forecheck, but he wasn't alone in that by any means. He also did get walked bad by Yakupov with about four minutes left in the third, a play that was very close to being the game. Oh, and his shootout attempt was kind of wanting.

So, other than that stuff he played decent. He didn't make any tremendous offensive plays, but pretty consistently moved the puck smartly out of the zone and calmed things down when needed. 

Puempel "Re-aggravates" Shoulder

#OHLRangers F Matt Puempel not making the trip to Owen Sound today. Re-aggravated shoulder injury last Friday. Back to rehab.

— Mike Farwell (@farwell590) January 2, 2013

His initial shoulder injury occurred back on Nov. 27th, costing him an invite to Team Canada's WJC selection camp. A day before his Dec. 28 return to the Kitchener lineup, he spoke to the Waterloo Record:

Puempel was hoping to return before the six-day holiday break but didn’t want to push his luck. The nagging shoulder injury affected the most important aspect of his game — his shot release.

"It feels good when I'm shooting now," he said. "That's what we were waiting for."

Hopefully this is an issue that can be solved with physio, hate to see him come down with Regin-itis and have to go under the knife.

Spezza, Greening, Smith Depart Europe

Fresh off a Spengler Cup win (the first team championsip of his pro/junior/international career), Spezza is leaving his club team in Rapperswil and returning to Ottawa. Garrioch goes on to mention that Greening and Zack Smith have similarily decided to leave the Danish league.

Gonchar on the other hand, is staying put in Magnitogorsk for the moment. 

Malkin, Gonchar will wait until camp date is announced by #nhl to return from Russia. @penguins #lockout #NHLPA

— Rob Rossi (@RobRossi_Trib) January 2, 2013

Does being named KHL defenseman of the month boost a man's NHL trade value?

Earlier this week ESPN's Pierre Lebrun revealed the latest details from the 300-page CBA proposal that the NHL tabled for the NHLPA on December 27th. 

The NHL posed a variety of changes to its offer in an attempt to move the two sides closer to an agreement. I've highlighted a few of said changes below along with their potential impact on the Senators. 

• Term limit on player contracts moves to six years from the five years NHL asked in previous offers (seven years if you're re-signing your own player).

The longest contracts that the Bryan Murray regime has awarded since taking over for John Muckler belong to Jason Spezza (seven years, $49 million) and Erik Karlsson (seven years, $42.5 million). Including Murray’s signings of some past-their-prime stars like Alexei Kovalev and to a much lesser extent, Sergei Gonchar, the Murray regime has been pretty fiscally responsible with the payroll. We can attribute the organization’s ‘rebuild’ as one of the principle explanations for how the Senators went from a cap ceiling team to icing one of the least inexpensive rosters in the NHL, but despite some mainstream radio postulation that this could be the result of Eugene Melnyk’s personal finances and potential interest in selling the club, last summer’s chase of Rick Nash helps suppress whatever fears there may be that this team is unwilling to spend money on payroll once the team is ready to contend. More on this later…

• Year-to-year salary variance moves from 5 percent (NHL's previous offers) to 10 percent.

In an effort to crackdown on General Managers that circumvent the cap in the short-term by inking star players to exorbitant frontloaded long-term deals with inexpensive final years tacked onto the deal, the league is looking to crack down on contracts that have been handed out in recent years to the likes of Roberto Luongo, Marian Hossa, and Ilya Kovalchuk.  

Although Ottawa has never really structured a long-term deal like this, given the parameters, no future contracts could be structured like Daniel Alfredsson’s current four-year pact which featured two front loaded seasons at $7 million, one at $4.5 million and a fourth season at $1 million.

If GM's are limited in term and variance, I wouldn't be surprised if cap-hits for premier players rise.

Finally back on the ice again! #goodtobeback #missedit

— Mika Zibanejad (@MikaZibanejad) December 31, 2012

In light of all the postulating and uncertainty surrounding Mika Zibanejad's health, this is great news for the Binghamton Senators and the organization's most heralded of prospects.

There's no update on whether Zibanejad skated informally or at a team practice, but if you're looking for a timeline on his return, know that Luke Richardson has appeared to afford his players as much time as needed to recoup from an injury.

Using Stephane Da Costa's as a recent example, the player was in the gym regaining his strength and conditioning well before joining his teammates on the ice for a week's worth of practices.

It may take some time before Zibanejad is back in the lineup, but today was an encouraging first step.