Silver Nuggets: Rookie tournament wraps up tonight; Lehner humble

The Ottawa Senators will play their provincial rivals, the Toronto Maple Leafs, in the final game of their rookie tournament. Both clubs have won their opening two games, and to the victor goes the spoils tonight. In three days time, the main training camp will start for the Senators in Ottawa. Then in six days from today, on Monday, the Senators will return to the GTA, this time in Toronto proper, when they play the Leafs in their opening game of the preseason. As Bob Cole would say, everything is happening!

Here are today's links:

General Sens News

• Robin Lehner says he doesn't enjoy being labelled arrogant whenever he says anything to the media. He says that he is humble but if he is not trying to win a job, then should he even show up? Lastly, he says he wants to earn a spot from the start and not just benefit from someone's injury down the road. As much as we all love Lehner's quotes, some of it just might be because English isn't his first language. (Ottawa Sun)
• Ottawa native Mark Borowiecki is going to endear himself to Sens fans when he said that growing up as a Senators fan, he dislikes the Maple Leafs. (Ottawa Sun)
• The Citizen also has an article on Borowiecki, writing that while he isn't as talented as some of the other prospects in the system, he still believes he is going to eventually make it. (Ottawa Citizen)
• The Senators have a lot of exciting prospects in the system and the fans are generally excited. Club president Cyril Leeder said that ticket sales have been strong. Although the comment about fans streaming the rookie games amuses me a bit, as it wasn't exactly an official club sanctioned stream. (Ottawa Citizen)
• Andre Petersson has finally put his back problems behind him, and is fully healthy. In the first two games at the rookie tournament, he's scored what the best player in the world would call, a couple of sick goals. Binghamton coach Kurt Kleinendorst thinks Petersson does everything very well, and could be the most skilled player on Binghamton. Petersson is also a friend of Erik Karlsson since childhood. (Ottawa Senators)

More after the jump.

General Hockey News

• I have made a lot of arguments against fighting, but here is at least one logical one for the pro-fighting camp, aside from the "part of the game" stuff. There is a small tangible advantage in winning a fight, in the ten minutes following a fight won, which then dies down after the ten minues. As a caveat, the article states the advantage in winning a fight is about equal to the equipment guy making sure you are not playing with an illegal stick. (Hockey Prospectus)
• The Vancouver Sun looks at why fighting is present, starting from the unskilled players in rookie tournaments who have no hope of making the club as a hockey player, but they will punch each other in a 7-2 exhibition game because that's what the crudest and loudest among us love. (Vancouver Sun)
• Good news for all female hockey video game fans, thanks to a 14-year-old girl, you can now create a female player in NHL 12, which is out today by the way. I will soon purchase it, so if you want to play me on PS3, let me know! (Yahoo!)