The Battle of the Tkachuks, Player Safety Insanity & More

American Thanksgiving has come and gone and, after a weekend filled with a ton of sports, it's time to check in around the Senators and the National Hockey League to catch up on what's going on.

• Ahead of tonight's Battle of the Tkachuks™, you can read a synopsis of how the first 18 contests between the two brothers have gone here.
• The NHL further proved that the Department of Player Safety makes decisions using some combination of a coin flip, a roulette wheel and drawing a random card from the deck as all they did was slap Jacob Trouba with a fine for attempting to decapitate Trent Frederic on the weekend. Seriously, you can make an argument, maybe, that Trouba wasn't intending to hit Frederic in the head... but there's no rational, good faith argument to be made that Trouba wasn't trying to swing his stick at Frederic for the sole purpose of injury. It's not like this was the follow through from a shot or an intense battle in the corner where a stick made contact accidentally. This is just blatant, axe-wielding psychopathy from the Rangers captain resulting in the equivelant of a parking ticket.
• The Senators have reassigned Mads Søgaard and Roby Järventie to Belleville. With both Matthew Highmore and Zack MacEwen still on the roster, it appears the Senators have decided Järventie needs more work in the AHL. As much as I love the player and would pick his skillset over whatever MacEwen provides, I would agree.
• One place the NHL has been consistent, of late, is sticking its foot in its mouth around players supporting causes and it happened again this weekend. After the NHL told Marc Andre Fleury that he could not wear his custom mask in support of Native American Heritage, the veteran goaltender wore it anyways. And, just like we saw with Travis Dermott's pride tape earlier this season, the NHL's threats towards Fleury were hollow, as no repercussions came from the event.
• The Colorado Avalanche did a classy honouring of the late Chris Snow during their game on Saturday night. The evening included Snow's family with a ceremonial puck drop, a donation to support the fight against ALS, and Snow's kids being featured in the Avs dressing room pre-game for the opening lineup announcement.
• This morning, Ottawa's best reporter Ian Mendes posted a piece on the Sens thus far and makes some arguments that, with a few tweaks, the team is on a better path than they were this time last season. A valiant effort by Mendes to try to kick this week off on a positive note, I must say.
• Last week, it was noted that Corey Perry was stepping away from the Blackhawks for undisclosed reasons, which predictably created a stir in the NHL community. After all, this is the Chicago Blackhawks and their reputation for being a transparent organization surely ranks last in all of pro sports.
• If you missed it on Friday, Mendes also posted an interesting piece detailing some of the reasoning behind Ottawa's jersey number selections. This includes a few players who couldn't wear what they wanted - because numbers were retired - and Claude Giroux turning his junior training camp number into a multi-decade career jersey number.
• While they likely still have a few seasons left in their respective careers, it's likely that we are seeing some of the last hockey games played by Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin over the next few years. Rob Rossi put together a great piece on the careers of the two superstars to date and just how connected they both have been to growing the game.
• Dallas Eakins and Tim Stützle now have somewhat of a connection as the former NHL coach is heading to Adler Mannheim of the DEL to serve as their GM and Head Coach for the remainder of the season.
• Corey Pronman posted a new edition of one of his fan favourite columns where he admits defeat on some of the prospects he's covered over the years.
• The Islanders and Devils completed a blockbuster trade this weekend, swapping two players you've definitely heard of.