Silver Nuggets: Do the Ottawa Senators have a honey badger?

Last week on Puck Daddy, Harrison Mooney looked at 'honey badger' players across the league. They're the kind of pugnacious, undersized players that most fans love to watch because they just keep going. In the past, they've been called sparkplugs. Honey badger, though, has a more storied history as a nickname than the generic sparkplug moniker.

According to Mooney, a honey badger is a player who meets these two criteria:

1. Despite being a small creature, the honey badger is pretty bad-ass.

2. The honey badger doesn't give a [excrement deleted].

So, who's the honey badgeriest player on the Ottawa Senators?

First in my mind, based on that second quality, is Zack Smith, who simply doesn't give a crap. But Zmith is 6'2" and 212 lbs; not exactly a small creature. In fact, the Senators don't have many small creatures; Daniel Alfredsson and Stephane Da Costa are both listed at 5'11" on the Senators website, making them the smallest players on the team (Erik Karlsson must have been wearing stilts on measuring day, because he apparently clocked in at 6'0"; that's laughable). Despite not being undersized, I'd also consider Chris Neil, Kaspars Daugavins, and Jesse Winchester as honey badger-type players: Not the fanciest of guys, but they work their butts off and take plenty of punishment to make things happen.

Senators headlines:

• Recaps from last night: Silver Seven | Nucks Misconduct | Ottawa Citizen | Ottawa Sun | Vancouver Province
• In the Sun recap linked above, Jesse Winchester expressed some displeasure about the Maxim Lapierre hit which, perhaps aided by some Alexandre Burrows shenanigans, knocked him through the bench door. And Paul MacLean trusted Brendan Shanahan would "do his job" about the Andrew Alberts hit-from-behind on Kaspars Daugavins.
• The Senators have one spare defenceman as it is, and will have two once Matt Carkner returns from his injury. What's more likely: A trade, or a demotion (of either Jared Cowen or David Rundblad) to Binghamton? (Sun)
• The Sens are shocking people with their strong play, but can they keep it up for the rest of the season? (Citizen)
• Binghamton finally ended their losing streak on Friday night with a 4-2 win over the Hamilton Bulldogs. Nikita Filatov had two goals (including the game winner) and an assist. (Press & Sun Bulletin)
• Sens draft pick Shane Prince had 2G and 2A in the 67's 5-2 win over Mississauga. (Citizen)

NHL headlines:

• JoNana with a terrific article on why visors should be made mandatory in the NHL. Here's the long and short of it: "Visor? Don’t lose an eye. No visor? Possibly lose an eye." (Backhand Shelf)
• Sidney Crosby makes his comeback tonight. Instead of constantly hearing injury updates, now we'll be forced to hear constant scoring updates as he climbs toward (and, I predict, overtakes) the league scoring lead. (Citizen)
• Anders Lindback is a really good goalie, I think. But he's not going to spend the next seven years in Pekka Rinne's shadow in Nashville. Is he on the trade block? His contract is up after this season, but he's still an RFA. If he's dealt, it will take a lot to get him. (On The Forecheck)
• Safe to say that Chris Pronger makes his team better. I could have said that anyway, but this Corsi chart really underlines how much. (Broad Street Hockey)
• This Bruce Boudreau-Alex Ovechkin thing kind of reminds me of the Cory Clouston-Dany Heatley rift, if a lot more public. Except this time, I doubt the coach will come out on top. (Puck Daddy)
• An all-Canadian division isn't likely to happen. To be honest, I'd prefer not to have one. (Globe and Mail)
• Ilya Bryzgalov felt so bad for this poor kid in Winnipeg (you know, the city with no parks?) that he gave him his hockey stick after the game. (Puck Daddy)

Finally, here's a video to enjoy: Alex Auld post-game last night. Siiiiiiick moustache. Too bad the team couldn't get the win for him, though; he sounds like he would have really loved to get one in Vancouver.