Jared Cowen was understandably beaming after winning the hardest shot competition in the Senators skills contest Thursday, but he did not have a whole lot to say about coach Dave Cameron's decision to make him a healthy scratch the night before.
The towering defenceman, a 2009 first-round pick who saw a career low 9:28 of ice time against the Bruins Tuesday, was shuttled to the press box for Wednesday's game against the Devils as Cameron elected to give Binghamton call-up Fredrik Claesson his first NHL shot instead.
Asked what it felt like to be passed over for a player who had spent four years in the minors but had never before played at this level, Cowen tried to avoid the question.