OTTAWA (AP) -Anaheim Ducks left winger Chris Kunitz continues to skate and work out, he just isn’t ready to play in the Stanley Cup finals.
Kunitz had surgery in mid-May after he broke a bone in his right hand during Game 1 of the Western Conference finals at Detroit. He was all but ruled out for the rest of the playoffs, but his presence still leaves the door open that he might be able to help Anaheim at some point against the Ottawa Senators.
“I haven’t talked to the doctors, but I think it’s doubtful because of the situation with his hand,” Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said Friday on the eve of Game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals. “I saw him in the training room trying to get some adjustment made and whatnot.
“So I would still say until we get clearance from a doctor, and that’s first and foremost, then the decision has to be whether he’s in game shape or his hand is this or that. But at this point we’re nowhere near that.”
Kunitz had a goal and five assists in the Ducks’ first 11 playoff games before the injury. He had 25 goals and 35 assists during his second full NHL regular season.
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NOSE OUT OF JOINT: Senators forward Mike Comrie’s nose is fine, but he’s still not happy after being bloodied by an elbow from Ducks defenseman Francois Beauchemin in the third period of Game 2 on Wednesday.
“It was a dirty play,” Comrie said, describing how he was without the puck along the boards in the Anaheim zone when he was caught flush in the face. “I turned into him, but you still have to be conscious of the play. The puck wasn’t around.”
Beauchemin wasn’t penalized on the play. Comrie, meanwhile, missed a couple of shifts while trainers attended to his bloody nose.
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DON’T TREAD ON ME: With the increased number of reporters in attendance, the Senators have taken to protecting their logo that’s printed on the red carpet in the team’s locker room.
The Senators previously had a staff member stop anyone from stepping on the logo. On Friday, the team put up two tension barriers to block access to the middle of the room.
“Makes my job easier,” a Senators staff member said.
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COLD DRAFT: Back in 1993, the Ottawa Senators had the No. 1 pick in the NHL draft and a chance to take big defenseman Chris Pronger.
They decided to go with enigmatic forward Alexandre Daigle instead. It is safe to say they wish they could get a do-over on that one.
Daigle came to the Senators in their second season in the NHL when he was only 18. Expected to be the big-time scorer he was in junior hockey, Daigle never blossomed and got swallowed up in Ottawa.
He played parts of five seasons with the Senators before being traded to Philadelphia in 1998. Daigle bounced around to Tampa Bay and the New York Rangers and then retired after the 1999-2000 season.
He came back with Pittsburgh after a two-year absence, splitting time in the AHL. He moved to Minnesota and posted 20 goals and 31 assists in the season before the lockout. When he came back to the Wild, he turned into a part-time player and netted five goals and 28 points last season.
The now 32-year-old Daigle played in the Swiss Elite League this season and expects to be back there in the fall. All in all, Daigle has 129 goals and 198 assists in 616 NHL games. He never came close to the Stanley Cup finals, appearing in only 12 career playoff games.
On the flip side, Pronger – chosen No. 2 by Hartford – is in the finals for the second straight year after getting there with Edmonton in 2006. He is tied for the team lead in the playoffs with 14 points, and is a finalist for the Norris Trophy, given to the NHL’s best defenseman in the regular season, an award he won in 2000 with St. Louis – the same year he was the MVP of the league.
“Funny how things work out, eh?” Pronger said with a smile and laugh Friday. “I guess my response is still the same. We’ll see what happens in 10 or 15 years. I guess it’s come full circle.”
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