PITTSBURGH — At another time, alarm bells would have been ringing all around the Canadian Tire Centre.
The Ottawa Senators’ chosen one left the practice ice early Friday morning, on the eve of the Eastern Conference final against the Pittsburgh Penguins, after skating for only 20 minutes.
“Just trying new skates on,” Senators captain Erik Karlsson said, long after the rest of his teammates had packed up their equipment and left the dressing room for the charter flight to Pittsburgh and Saturday’s series opener. “That was the plan all along. So nothing to read into that.”
Given Karlsson’s injury history in the past month, you might think that his quick exit from the workout would be cause for concern.