Silver Nuggets: Training camp starts today; Melnyk won't sell club

Earlier this morning, 8:30 in fact, the Senators players started reporting for medicals and physical fitness tests. Tomorrow, the Senators will start on-ice sessions and will continue into Sunday before starting their preseason schedule Monday night in Toronto.

Here are today's links:

• A link to the training camp roster. A total of 59 players were invited, and they will be divided into three teams named after Senators alumni, Laurie Boschman, Jim Kyte and Brad Marsh. (Ottawa Senators)
• Here is how the players are divided into the three teams and a general guide of every player in camp. The one that I am most excited to see is Jason Spezza with Bobby Butler and Nikita Filatov. First line in the making, yes please! (Ottawa Senators)
• If you missed it this morning, Darren looked at some of the stories heading into training camp (Silver Seven)
• Bryan Murray was on radio discussing what the Senators will need to do make the playoffs, as well as his thoughts on David Rundblad, Mika Zibanejad, Bobby Butler, Zack Smith and Paul MacLean. Here is a transcript. (The 6th Sens)
• In an interview with the Sun, Murray thinks the club will push for a playoff spot, and takes a slight shot at Cory Clouston, saying that some of the club's players felt a change was needed. (Ottawa Sun)
• Bruce Garrioch's list of five things the Senators need to do to make the playoffs: 1) Craig Anderson provides solid goaltending, 2) Daniel Alfredsson is healthy, 3) Buy into Paul MacLean's program, 4) Strong Jason Spezza and 5) Chris Phillips and Sergei Gonchar improve. (Ottawa Sun)
• Daniel Alfredsson is good to go but adds that no one feels 100% in training camp, that seems odd to me, but hopefully he is fine. Also, the rookies who impressed Paul MacLean at the Oshawa tournament? Mika Zibanejad, Stephane Da Costa, Robin Lehner, David Rundblad, Derek Grant, Corey Cowick, Stefan Noesen and Shane Prince. (Ottawa Sun)
• Hey look Don Brennan is back! He writes that Paul MacLean is very excited for camp to finally begin. MacLean acknowledges the club might not start the season quickly, but he is more concerned with long term goals. (Ottawa Sun)
• The Senators hope to exceed the very low expectations outsiders have of them. For his part, Paul MacLean just wants the club to get better each day. Jason Spezza doesn't think the turnover at the club will be quite as dramatic, as he did see a lot of the players at the end of the season. It's that time of year where most people (including me) are full of optimism of what could be. (Ottawa Citizen)
• Eugene Melnyk admits he lost money last season (the rumour was $14 million but he won't confirm that). Melnyk adds that he won't sell the club - as long as the fans don't stop caring like Atlanta or Phoenix fans did. He feels there is no chance of that happening in Ottawa. (Ottawa Citizen)
• The full transcript of the Melnyk interview. With the club cutting payroll, he thinks the Senators might break even without making the playoffs this season. He also mentions that requiring to make the playoffs to break even isn't a good business model and that they haven't raised ticket prices for a while. Could this be a signal that tickets will go up when payroll goes up again? (Senators Extra)
• The Cory Clouston Fashion Review looks at how a club with better than average attendance, higher than average ticket prices could possibly need to make the second round to break even. (Cory Clouston Fashion Review)
• Now, I don't read HockeyBuzz or Eklund, but this was hilarious. Yesterday, The 6th Sens linked to an article where Eklund stated how Bryan Murray's worst move ever was to let Zdeno Chara go. He finally realised it wasn't in fact Bryan Murray. (Hockey Buzz)
• Corey Pronman's list of the top 100 prospects. Senators making the list are: David Rundblad (#17), Mika Zibanejad (#21), Nikita Filatov (#40), Stephane Da Costa (#46), Jared Cowen (#76), Jakob Silfverberg (#85), Patrick Wiercioch (#90). In a separate list of goalie prospects, Robin Lehner was #4. (Hockey Prospectus)