The Sportsnet schedule has something for all Senators fans including 11 match-ups versus divisional rivals and 10 against Canadian-based teams. Selected games will be presented in HD. This season marks the 10th consecutive year that Sportsnet has broadcast Senators Hockey.

The Sens will feature a new look and a new attitude this season, starting at the top with new head coach Craig Hartsburg. The offense once again will be led byveterans Daniel Alfredsson, Jason Spezza and Dany Heatley. The blue line will be anchored by Chris Phillips while Martin Gerber will be between the pipes. Additions to their lineup includes Jason Smith, veteran defenseman and former captain of both the Philadelphia Flyers and Edmonton Oilers, pesky winger Jarkko Ruutu and back up goaltender Alex Auld.

Sportsnet East will boast some of the best Senators??? match-ups of the season including:

— War of Ontario — two games with their bitter inter-province rivals the Toronto Maple Leafs
— The Battle for Highway 417 -??? two match-ups with their neighbours down the highway, the Montreal Canadiens
— Alexander The Great ???- three games versus MVP Alexander Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals
— The Return of Chara -??? three games against defenceman Zedena Chara, the former Sen who captains the Boston Bruins

The complete 2008-09 Sportsnet East Senators broadcast schedule can be found below.
For all the scores, highlights, breaking news and inside stories from the Ottawa Senators and the entire NHL tune in to Sportsnet Connected and log on to sportsnet.ca. ???Your home team. First.???

OTTAWA SENATORS ON SPORTSNET EAST
all games and times subject to change

GM DAY DATE AWAY HOME SN East (ET)
1 Fri. 10/17/08 Phoenix Ottawa 7:00 ET
2 Fri. 10/24/08 Anaheim Ottawa 7:00 ET
3 Tues 11/04/08 Washington Ottawa 7:30 ET
4 Thur 11/06/08 Philadelphia Ottawa 7:30 ET
5 Fri. 11/07/08 Ottawa Carolina 7:00 ET
6 Thur 11/13/08 NY Islanders Ottawa 7:30 ET
7 Mon 11/17/08 Ottawa NY Rangers 7:00 ET
8 Thur 11/20/08 Montreal Ottawa 7:30 ET
9 Thur 11/27/08 Toronto Ottawa 7:30 ET
10 Mon 12/08/08 Florida Ottawa 7:30 ET
11 Fri. 12/12/08 Ottawa Washington 7:00 ET
12 Tues 12/16/08 Atlanta Ottawa 7:30 ET
13 Fri. 12/19/08 Ottawa New Jersey 7:00 ET
14 Tues 12/23/08 Ottawa Philadelphia 7:00 ET
15 Sun 12/28/08 Ottawa Vancouver 10:00 ET
16 Tues 12/30/08 Ottawa Edmonton 10:00 ET
17 Tues 01/06/09 Ottawa Buffalo 7:00 ET
18 Thur 01/08/09 Ottawa Boston 7:00 ET
19 Tues 01/13/09 Carolina Ottawa 7:30 ET
20 Tues 01/27/09 New Jersey Ottawa 7:30 ET
21 Thur 01/29/09 Ottawa St. Louis 8:30 ET
22 Fri. 01/30/09 Ottawa Columbus 7:00 ET
23 Sun 02/01/09 Ottawa Washington 12:30 ET
24 Tues 02/03/09 Los Angeles Ottawa 7:30 ET
25 Thur 02/12/09 Ottawa Philadelphia 7:00 ET
26 Tues 02/17/09 Ottawa Colorado 9:30 ET
27 Thur 02/19/09 Vancouver Ottawa 7:30 ET
28 Tues 02/24/09 Carolina Ottawa 7:30 ET
29 Thur 02/26/09 San Jose Ottawa 7:30 ET
30 Tues 03/03/09 Calgary Ottawa 7:30 ET
31 Thur 03/05/09 Edmonton Ottawa 7:30 ET
32 Mon 03/09/09 Toronto Ottawa 7:30 ET
33 Thur 03/12/09 Ottawa Boston 7:00 ET
34 Tues 03/17/09 Buffalo Ottawa 7:30 ET
35 Thur 03/19/09 Montreal Ottawa 7:30 ET
36 Tues 03/31/09 Ottawa Florida 7:30 ET
37 Thur 04/02/09 Ottawa Boston 7:00 ET
38 Mon 04/06/09 Ottawa Montreal 7:30 ET
39 Tues 04/07/09 Boston Ottawa 7:30 ET
40 Thur 04/09/09 New Jersey Ottawa 7:30 ET

Atlantic Division Finals schedule announced
Ottawa native Bell signs with Senators
Watch 40 Sens games on Sportsnet

TORONTO — It’s been six months since Toronto Maple Leafs GM Cliff Fletcher had to helplessly watch the NHL’s trade deadline pass by without being able to shake up his lineup.

On that February afternoon, he made a passionate promise that major changes were still coming. With training camp and a new season now fast approaching, it’s fair to say the veteran hockey executive made good on his word.

There could be as many as10 new faces in the Maple Leafs lineup on opening night. Fletcher is pleased with the changes he’s made but is keenly aware that they won’t change one fundamental rule of pro sports.

“Trying to build a team can’t be fast-tracked,” he said Tuesday.

Fletcher is currently enjoying a rare period of quiet and noted that news from around the NHL has fallen almost completely silent of late.

That includes any news from veteran Maple Leafs Mats Sundin (considering retirement) and Bryan McCabe (considering waiving his no-trade clause).

“There’s nothing new as we’re talking today,” said Fletcher.

No matter how those situations play out, there will be plenty of new faces to get familiar with. One of the more interesting stories to follow will be that of defenceman Luke Schenn.

The Leafs traded up to select the 18-year-old with the fifth pick in the June draft and intend to have him compete for a spot with the team. However, they won’t rush him along.

“He’ll be given every chance to make the team,” said Fletcher. “When you look back historically Toronto’s been a graveyard for young defencemen that maybe shouldn’t have been integrated into the NHL lineup as early as they were.

“We’re not going to make that mistake.”

Overall, the GM feels good about a defence corps that will also include free-agent signings Jeff Finger and Jonas Frogen. He’s also happy with the goaltending duo of Vesa Toskala and Curtis Joseph.

The area he’ll be watching closest is his forwards because that group includes the most number of question marks at this point. Expect to see new additions Mikhail Grabovsky and Nikolai Kulemin among the players challenging for spots on the scoring units.

“When you look at your top two lines, we’re going to have a lot of young players there this year,” said Fletcher. “How we fare during the regular season will depend very much on how half a dozen of our young players progress.

“We’re not going to be able to start finding that out until we drop the puck for real.”

That won’t come until Oct. 9 when the Maple Leafs visit Detroit.

The team will participate in a rookie tournament starting Sept. 13 and will break training camp a week after that. There were no cure-all solutions to be found during a busy off-season and Fletcher remains content to allow his team to grow.

“The key word for the Maple Leafs management and coaching is going to be patience,” he said. “You can’t force things to happen — you have to let them unfold and happen at their own pace.

“We will be patient. We will give a lot of young players that opportunity to become better players and to become a good hockey team.”

He doesn’t think most Leaf fans will have any trouble sharing that philosophy.

“I think most hockey fans in this area understand what our situation is here,” said Fletcher. “I think they have a pretty good feeling for what has to be done to build a much better team.”

Sharks won’t let Leafs talk to GM Wilson
Doug Gilmour joins Marlies’ coaching staff

In a young hockey career that has captured attention on and off the ice, Akim Aliu says he’s ready to take the next step — making a name for himself in the National Hockey League.

The 19-year-old signed a three-year entry level contract this week with the Chicago Blackhawks, the team that drafted him in 2007 with the 56th overall pick, much lower than projected by scouts for the big, tough and fast right winger.

Spatsand feuds with coaches and at least one teammate — the sandpapery Steve Downie — marked Aliu’s junior career, in which he played on three teams in three years. But he also stood out for his ferocious play on the forecheck and a decent touch around the net.

“It’s been an up and down career so far and this is one of the ups,” Aliu said after skating with his junior team, the London Knights.

Aliu has to crack the Hawks’ lineup in training camp or return to London for a final year of junior, but many are pulling for him if only because his is one of the most interesting stories among the recent crop of junior aged talent.

Aliu was born in Nigeria, but spent most of his childhood in Ukraine, where his Nigerian father Tai was a sprinter at the University of Kiev. His mother Larissa is Ukrainian.

He didn’t speak a word of English and had never held a hockey stick when the family moved to Toronto when he was 12, but only a few years later he was playing on one of the city’s top midget-aged teams with rising star Sam Gagner.

At a combine where junior prospects were interviewed by teams ahead of the 2007 draft, Aliu was asked by one club to serve as interpreter for a Russian player.

Now he wants to make the jump to the NHL with the Blackhawks, a team touted as a future power with young talents like Jonathan Teows and Patrick Kane and the signing on July 1 of rushing defenceman Brian Campbell to an eight-year contract.

“Hopefully my junior career is over,” said Aliu, who quickly added that he is also perfectly happy in London. “They have an unbelievable organization in Chicago.

“I think that in a couple of years, we’ll be a team to watch for.”

To crack Chicago’s lineup, it is expected that he will have to outplay prospects Jack Skille, a first-rounder in 2005, and Troy Brouwer for a spot on the second or third line.

He made an impression at a rookie camp this summer with both his scoring and his fists. At six-foot-two, 216 pounds, Aliu is not afraid to drop the gloves. Some see him as a future linemate and protector for Teows and Kane, although it’s difficult to imagine 36 goal-scorer Patrick Sharp taken off that trio any time soon.

“I think that’s the most over-rated part of my game,” he said of fighting. “I think that when I do fight, I do well, but that’s not what I try to go out and do.

“If a guy is going to challenge me or take liberties with my teammates, then I’ll do it. The game I want to play is to be a skilled power forward. I want to be able to bang and crash, but not too much so that it takes away from my skill level.”

Aliu’s combination of size and speed — he won the fastest skater contest at the 2007 Top Prospects game — had him rated to go in the top 15 of the draft, but NHL clubs were put off by his indiscipline as a junior.

Perhaps it was because he wasn’t raised in Canadian hockey culture that he refused to participate in a hazing ritual with the Windsor Spitfires in 2005 in which rookies were ordered by the veterans to cram into the so-called Hotbox — the tiny restroom at the back of the team bus.

The next day at practice, he was cross-checked in the mouth by Downie, chipping three teeth. Aliu went for treatment, then returned to the ice and fought his team captain. The resulting furor over hazing cost coach Moe Mantha his job.

Both players were traded and have since made up, but Aliu had more trouble with coach Mike Foligno with the Sudbury Wolves and was suspended by the team after taking some thoughtless penalties.

He seems to be maturing as his junior career goes on and it is his play on the ice that gets most of the attention now.

Last season, he had a career high 61 points, including 28 goals, for the Knights to go with 133 penalty minutes in 60 games. He has 123 points and 316 penalty minutes in 160 junior games thus far.

At the end of last season, he was signed to a tryout contract and played two games for the AHL Rockford IceHogs, where he had no points and two penalty minutes.

Now he’s ready for the Blackhawks camp, having put on some extra weight in the off-season.

“They said I had a good shot at making it but that it’s all up to me,” Aliu said. “I think I have to play to my strengths.

“I’m a big, powerful guy. I’ll just try to get in on the forecheck and try to get the puck. I want to show them what I can do.”

Doughty inks entry-level deal with Kings
Ottawa native Bell signs with Senators
Sabres sign Portland captain Bouck

PHILADELPHIA — Veteran NHL defenceman Bryan Berard will attempt to make an NHL club on a tryout contract, after being invited to training camp with the Philadelphia Flyers.

“Bryan has been around a number of years now (and) he has been a good defenceman for quite some time,” said Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren. “I’m excited about Bryan’s willingness to come here on a tryout. It will certainly pick up the competition level ofwhat is going to take place in training camp.”

The 31-year-old Berard was the No. 1 overall draft pick of the Ottawa Senators in 1995, but refused to sign and was traded to the New York Islanders.

In 619 career games covering 12 years with the Islanders, Toronto, New York Rangers, Boston, Chicago and Columbus, Berard has 76 goals and 247 assists. Last season with the Islanders, he had five goals and 17 assists in 54 games.

Berard, from Woonsocket, R.I., sustained a severe eye injury in 2000 while playing with Toronto that was thought to be career-ending. He made it back to the NHL but tested positive for steroids in 2005 after he was listed on a U.S. Olympic hockey preliminary roster, and was banned from international competition for two years.

He wasn’t suspended by the NHL because the failed test wasn’t a part of the league’s drug program.

“I thank the Flyers for giving me this opportunity to try out,” said Berard. “I am really looking forward to this. I have been around for a while and training camps are nothing new for me. I like to come in and compete at a high level.”

Islanders sign Weight to one-year deal
Islanders sign goaltender Danis
Islanders, Tambellini agree on new deal

CHICAGO — The Chicago Blackhawks have signed right wing Akim Aliu to a three-year contract, the club announced Monday.

Aliu, 19, was ranked third on the OHL’s London Knights with a career-high 61 points (28 goals, 33 assists) and 133 penalty minutes in 60 games last season.

Born in Okene, Nigeria, Aliu was raised in Ukraine until he was seven before moving to Toronto in the mid-90’s.

Chicago’s third choice(56th overall) in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft, Aliu made his professional debut last year, posting two penalty minutes in two contests with the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs.

Aliu notched 58 goals, 123 points and 316 penalty minutes in 160 career regular-season OHL tilts with the Windsor Spitfires (2005-06), Sudbury Wolves (2005-07) and Knights.

Canadiens sign forward Glumac
Ott signs two-year extension with Stars
Maple Leafs ink trio, Moore included
Udinese agree Nigerian deal

Edmonton Oilers captain Ethan Moreau reportedly was a passenger in a vehicle involved in an alleged hit-and-run in Vancouver last week.

Both Sun Media and the CBC are reporting that Moreau and four others were in a Toyota 4Runner that hit a parked motorcycle and then drove away. No one was hurt in the incident.

The CBC reported that the group had been at a downtown Vancouver restaurant last Wednesday and that when theyleft, the vehicle in which they were riding allegedly backed into the motorcycle owned by the restaurant’s bartender, Nathan Dery. Dery said his bike suffered a bent lever and scratches. Dery said the driver has contacted him and agreed to have the bike fixed.

Alan Watt, vice-president of communications for the Oilers, confirmed to Sun Media that Moreau was in the vehicle but that he was not the driver.

Vancouver police are investigating the incident as a hit-and-run because drivers must remain at the scene of an accident.

Tambellini joins Oilers’ front-office fold
Ex-Viking Eller pulled over in motorcycle incident
Judge allows lawsuit in death of ex-Raider Russell

TORONTO — Rogers Sportsnet Ontario has the most Hockey That Matters to fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Blue and White make their 2008-2009 Sportsnet Ontario and Sportsnet HD regular season debut on Friday, October 17 at 7 p.m. ET when they hit Broadway to face the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.

Sportsnet Ontario’s Molson Canadian Leafs Hockey broadcast schedule features more games than any other channel,including 28-regular season match-ups available in high-definition, plus the Coke Zero Fans First Game, a pre-season tilt at Air Canada Centre versus the Buffalo Sabres, free-to-fans, on Monday, September 22 at 7:30 p.m. ET.

“Rogers Sportsnet can now offer Leaf fans more of the games they want to see,” said Doug Beeforth, President, Rogers Sportsnet. “As the Official Broadcaster of the Leafs, we’re proud to be a leader in bringing viewers closer to the Blue and White with more Leaf games than any other channel.”

Joe Bowen has the play-by-play call while former National Hockey League goaltender Greg Millen handles the colour commentary. Paul Hendrick rounds-out the broadcast crew as the in-game reporter for Molson Canadian Leafs Hockey on Sportsnet Ontario.

The Buds enter the ‘08-’09 season with a new look and a new vision. General Manager Cliff Fletcher has assembled a younger, grittier Leafs roster through a series of key additions and subtractions. Into-the-fold are new Head Coach Ron Wilson, forwards Niklas Hagman, Mikhail Grabovski, Jamal Mayers, defender Jeff Finger, and returning goaltender Curtis Joseph. Gone is veteran Darcy Tucker, netminder Andrew Raycroft and playmaker Kyle Wellwood to make room for youngsters Jiri Tlusty and Nikolai Kulemin.

Sportsnet Ontario’s Leafs broadcast schedule features seven games against Northeast Division rivals including the Boston Bruins (3), Buffalo Sabres (2), Ottawa Senators (1) and the Montreal Canadiens (1).

Some of the NHL’s biggest stars will also appear as part of Sportsnet Ontario’s Leafs Hockey coverage. The Leafs visit Jarome Iginla and his Calgary Flames on Tuesday, November 11 at 9:30 p.m. ET, Joe Thornton’s San Jose Sharks on Tuesday, December 2 at 10:30 p.m. ET as well as Alexander Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals on Thursday, March 5 at 7 p.m. ET.

The complete Sportsnet Ontario Leafs Hockey broadcast schedule can be found below.
For all the scores, highlights, breaking news and inside stories from the Toronto Maple Leafs and the entire NHL tune in to Sportsnet Connected and log on to sportsnet.ca. “Your home team. First.”

Portland, Buffalo announce affiliation agreement
Sabres sign Portland captain Bouck
Sportsnet to air 28 Maple Leafs games

Stefan Legein, the Columbus Blue Jackets second-round pick in the 2007 NHL entry draft, has decided to quit hockey.

Legein’s agent, Doug Woods, informed the Blue Jackets that the 19-year-old right winger will not report to training camp next month and is retiring, according to a report in the Columbus Dispatch.

Blue Jackets general manager Scott Howson confirmed the news to the Dispatch late Tuesday night.

Legein, a native of Oakville, Ont., was an all-star with the Niagara IceDogs of the Ontario Hockey League last season, scoring 24 goals and adding 13 assists with 80 penalty minutes in 30 games. He also helped Canada win its fourth straight gold medal at the world junior championship.

Ducks acquire 2008 AHL All-Star forward Lindstrom
Jackets lock up Leclaire for three years

The Minnesota Wild hope to make Marian Gaborik an offer he won’t refuse. Their first step was a visit to Slovakia for a face-to-face meeting with their franchise player.

President and general manager Doug Risebrough and assistant GM for hockey operations Tom Lynn travelled to Gaborik’s home in Trencin last week, armed with data and ready to listen.

They shared inside information about their philosophy and plans, used statistics to sell the 26-year-old right wing on how he fits in Minnesota’s system, and took time to answer Gaborik’s questions about the team’s strategy and direction.

They didn’t talk contract yet. They just wanted to give him their side before the negotiation process begins.

“He’s going to make a decision, and we want him to make that decision with all the information that’s out there and not base it on any misconceptions or myths,” Lynn said Monday.

One of their primary objectives was to convince him he can still thrive as a scorer in the more-rugged Western Conference with a Wild team that has always emphasized defence first under coach Jacques Lemaire. Gaborik has publicly acknowledged in the past he’s wondered how productive he could be in a more offensive system.

But Lynn argued against that, citing Gaborik’s NHL rank in goals per game (fourth) and even-strength goals (first) since the lockout. In the team’s view, health is the only barrier to Gaborik becoming a 50-goal scorer. Nagging groin injuries limited him to 65 games in 2005-06 and 48 in 2006-07.

Last season, finally at full strength, he had a career-high 42 goals and 41 assists in 77 games while helping the Wild win their first Northwest Division title. Taken with the third overall draft pick eight years ago, Gaborik is the only remaining player from Minnesota’s inaugural season in 2000-01.

The Wild also wanted Gaborik to hear about how they evaluate players, what their short- and long-term strategies are for building the roster, and how they believe he fits with them.

“He got a higher level of information than any other player has gotten. He was really pleasantly surprised,” Lynn said. “We thought the meeting went well, and Marian expressed the same thing.”

Gaborik’s agent, Ron Salcer, concurred.

“I have a lot of respect for how they handled that,” Salcer said. “It was a smart move on their behalf.”

Gaborik will make US$7.5 million in the last of three years on his current contract, which he signed in July 2006. If the two sides don’t agree on a length and an amount of money for his next deal over the next month, the Wild might have to trade him. They can continue to talk during the season, but that’s a distraction players and teams always want to avoid.

“I don’t control what they do. I just represent Marian,” Salcer said. “He really has no decisions to make. The experience playing for the Minnesota Wild has been great. We have no bones to pick about anything. I really feel that Marian has been treated well and has enjoyed his career there to date.”

Gaborik could choose to play the season and test free agency next summer to potentially maximize his earnings and see what other teams are interested. But the security of signing a long deal — likely between four and seven years — is attractive, too.

“As far as the future, it would be all hypothetical for me to speculate on what may or may not happen,” Salcer said. “We’re not saying no, we’re not saying yes to anything other than living up to our obligation to play this season. Then we’ll see.”

Wild coach Lemaire returning for ‘08-09
Wild sign 2008 Calder Cup champion Schultz
Wild commit five years to Bouchard

The NHL refuses to entertain compensation offers from a newly formed Russian hockey league for the signing of forward Alex Radulov while the player was under contract with the Nashville Predators.

And until Radulov’s contract with the Predators is honoured, the NHL won’t consider negotiating a player transfer agreement with the Continental Hockey League (KHL), NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told The Associated Press in an e-mail on Monday.

“The bottom line from our perspective is that the player has a contract which our rules obligate him to respect,” Daly said. “Our rules don’t recognize a player (or his new team) being able to ‘buy’ the way out of an existing contract. It’s not a scenario that our existing rules contemplate or allow.”

Radulov is at the centre of a controversy between the NHL and the KHL after the player signed with KHL’s Ufa last month.

KHL president Alexander Medvedev said Radulov’s signing was legal because it occurred days before the leagues reached an agreement to not sign players under contract. Medvedev added that Ufa has since made an offer to compensate the Predators, but has yet to receive a response.

Daly said he isn’t aware if an offer was made, but insisted that such a deal wouldn’t be accepted.

The Predators declined comment, deferring the matter to the NHL.

The exchange between league officials came after Medvedev met with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman last week in an attempt to secure a formal player transfer agreement that would provide compensation for teams in both leagues that lose players. Medvedev said he presented the NHL with a framework of a deal that would provide a formula for compensation based on the age of a player, how high he was drafted, and other variable factors.

Daly said the NHL is open to negotiating such a deal, but not until the Radulov issue is resolved.

Medvedev said there is no mechanism in the KHL rules to force Radulov’s return to the NHL, and said the matter might have to be resolved in court.

He argued that Radulov’s case is no different than NHL teams signing Nikita Filatov, Viktor Tikhonov, Jason Krog, Tomas Mojzis and Fedor Fedorov, all of whom he said were under contract in Russia.

Daly disputes that claim, saying the league has documentation stating that those players were free to sign with their respective NHL teams.

The International Ice Hockey Federation is investigating the status of all six players, including Radulov. The IIHF doesn’t have the authority to rescind contracts, but could bar players from taking part in international competitions, including the Olympics.

Medvedev, last weekend, announced the KHL has extended a moratorium preventing its teams from signing NHL players under contract.

“We should forget emotions and we should start a new life with a transfer agreement in place,” Medvedev said. “But without such an agreement, if somebody will break the moratorium … then it will be everybody could take any player and it will not be good for hockey.”

Daly dismissed the moratorium by questioning why one was necessary.

“The KHL shouldn’t need a ‘moratorium’ to adhere to a policy of respecting legal and binding contractual commitments,” Daly said.