The Senators' oft-injured centre will be held out of the lineup for preseason game number two on Tuesday night.
With their regular season opener just over two weeks away, the Ottawa Senators play their second of seven preseason games on Tuesday night, hosting the Toronto Maple Leafs in part two of a home-and-home series. With a lot of their NHL veterans sitting out, the Senators won the opener in Toronto, 6-5 in overtime on Sunday night.
Josh Norris didn't play in that game. He didn't play in the black-and-white game in Gatineau on Saturday. And he won't play on Tuesday night either.
So, obviously, one of two things is happening. Either the refurbished shoulder isn't 100 percent, or it's exactly what the team is presenting to the public. They're just being overcautious with him.
“We didn’t plan to scrimmage him from Day 1," head coach Travis Green told the media after the intrasquad game in Gatineau. "We just want to make sure that we’re on top of it and he’s fully ready. He’s gone through a lot with the surgeries... There’s no need to rush him."
That was just three days ago, and there's absolutely no reason for the strategy to change at this early stage of camp. The Sens are doing exactly the right thing because, given the serial nature of Norris's shoulder issues, it's impossible to be too careful.
As I said at this time last year, you almost want to wait for doctors to give him full clearance to play, and then keep him out for a few weeks on top of that. Call it bonus healing time.
After tonight, the Sens still have five games and 16 days until the regular season opener against the Florida Panthers. There's still room to cram in even more healing time. In the meantime, Norris is still skating, working out, getting knocked around in drills along the boards.
And at practice today, he sure didn't look like a man with a sore shoulder.
So, to answer our own hysterical headline, there's zero reason to worry at this stage.
Norris may well be ready for launch, but why risk it for a nothing game? Why expose him at this point in camp to an AHL-level opponent who's running around trying to get noticed? Why not take every extra day of healing and strengthening you can get?
All that being said, Norris still needs preseason game reps at some point. If he's still absent from their final two preseason games on October 4th (at Detroit) and 5th (Montreal), then this becomes a subject worth revisiting.