ess innings in his third rehabilitation start at Double-A Fr

With the Senators set to play their first game after the Olympic break and with the trade deadline looming, heres a look at 10 burning questions for the Ottawa Senators heading into the stretch drive. 1. Do the Senators really need to find a winger for Jason Spezza? We are less than a week away from the NHL trade deadline and most experts agree that the Senators need help up front - specifically finding a winger for Jason Spezza. Bryan Murray told reporters last week that he would ideally like to get a winger who has term left on his contract, saying he would prefer to stay away from rentals. While Spezza has struggled at times this season, he did head into the Olympic break on a hot streak - collecting six points in his last three games. Milan Michalek also seemed to be playing his best hockey of the season before the break and if he can return to a reasonable facsimile of his 2011-12 self, the Sens may not need to add a scoring forward on Spezzas wing. Still, the Sens only have three games left before the Olympic break, so it would be a tall order for the Greening-Spezza-Michalek line to convince Murray that they have re-discovered their chemistry. The smart money is on the Senators finding another winger to bring into the mix, but obtaining a rental still may be the most likely scenario. 2. What is the future of Chris Phillips in Ottawa? Chris Phillips becomes an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season and there is no doubting the Senators could land a nice return for the veteran blueliner if they moved him at the deadline. The market for a veteran defenceman was set fairly high last year when the Buffalo Sabres received two second round picks from the Los Angeles Kings for Robyn Regehr. However, the Senators have always been hesitant to move a defenceman at the deadline when they are in the playoff race. In 2010 they hung onto Anton Volchenkov, in 2012 they did not move Filip Kuba and last year they kept Sergei Gonchar. All three cases had the exact same outcome: 1. The Senators made the playoffs2. The Senators lost in the first or second round3. The defencemen left the team in the off-season. (Volchenkov and Kuba via free agency, while Gonchar was dealt just before the start of free agency for a late-round pick). Phillips case is a little more intriguing because he is perceived as a legacy player and in the aftermath of the Daniel Alfredsson saga, the organization may be a little more cautious dealing with him. But considering Murray has never moved a defenceman at the deadline before, its hard to see him changing his mind this year - especially with a player with Phillips reputation in this community. Its more likely that Phillips future will be decided in the off-season and if he does want to explore free agency, the Senators could try and use the same approach they did with Gonchar and move Phillips for a draft pick. 3. Should Bryan Murray trade a defenceman at the deadline? For most of this season, the Senators have been carrying eight defencemen on the NHL roster. But Joe Corvo has been essentially sent into exile - having suited up for just two games since the calendar flipped to 2014. Eric Gryba has played his way into the lineup lately, leaving Patrick Wiercioch as the odd man out. The club also has Mark Borowiecki playing in the minors and he appears ready to play at the NHL level right now. Since there are always an abundance of teams who need defencemen at the deadline, Murray could be dealing form a position of strength here. But if he moves someone like Wiercioch, you would have to imagine Murray would be looking for someone with term on his contract - and not simply a rental. 4. Is Cody Ceci ready to play heavy minutes in crucial games? Its ironic that the Sens could be in the position to move a defenceman because two months ago, Bryan Murrays biggest need was on the back end. He pursued Michael Del Zotto from the New York Rangers, but balked when the asking price was too high. Instead, the Senators went for an internal solution with Cody Ceci and the 20-year-old was instrumental in solving the clubs puck-moving woes. But while Ceci was logging more than 20 minutes a night for a while, his ice time was drastically reduced just before the Olympic break. In crucial games against Pittsburgh and St. Louis, Ceci played just over 11 minutes on both nights. Considering those were must-win games on the road, it will be interesting to see how Paul MacLean uses Ceci down the stretch in some very important games. 5. When will Jared Cowen go back to being Jared Cowen? In the Canadian hockey rule book it clearly states there has to be a whipping boy for the fans and media each season. This year, nobody has taken as much abuse as Jared Cowen from the Senators faithful. Cowen has not looked anywhere as good as he did during his rookie season in 2011-12, when he established himself as one of the most solid young defencemen in the game. This season has been a struggle for the young blueliner, who is still playing more than 20 minutes a night. This is also the first year of his new four-year contract which will pay him an average of $3.1 million per season. There have been some fans grumbling that Cowen is entering Tyler Myers territory, but its probably too soon to make that comparison. He still looks like he is recovering from the effects of hip surgery from last season and much like Erik Karlsson, it may take him a significant amount of time to return to his old self. But if Cowen can look like the 2011-12 version of himself who was dominant on some nights, the Senators back end will look a lot more intimidating. 6. Will Mika Zibanejad and Zack Smith get enough ice time at centre? Paul MacLean has come back from the Olympic break and announced that Mika Zibanejad will be a centre from this point forward - barring any unforeseen circumstances. So if that is the case, how will MacLean juggle his lines so that his centremen will each get enough ice time to be effective? Spezza and Turris usually play between 18-20 minutes a night and if that trend continues, it would leave roughly 20-22 total minutes to be shared by Zibanejad and Smith. So if Zibanejad were to play 14 minutes, that could leave only six or seven minutes for Zack Smith. Perhaps the solution here is to really roll four lines and centremen who all log close to 15 minutes of ice time each night. 7. Can Craig Anderson continue his strong play? Craig Anderson wont be in the building tonight against the Red Wings, but the Senators netminder will have to be razor-sharp when he does return to the lineup this weekend. He was 6-1-3 in January and had a save percentage of .917 for the month as the Senators crawled back into the playoff race. But if Ottawa wants to cement a playoff berth, they will likely need their No.1 goalie to play at least 17 of the final 23 games and come out with about 12 or 13 wins. Anderson has shown in the past that he can get hot and carry this team and they will need that type of goaltending from him down the stretch. 8. Can Turris and MacArthur re-create their magic? Kyle Turris and Clarke MacArthur have been the Senators dynamic duo this season, but their production slowed down just before the Olympic break. MacArthur collected just one assist in his last seven games and that forced Paul MacLean to shuffle up their line a little bit. He is keeping Turris and MacArthur together, but he has moved Bobby Ryan off to another line and brought in Erik Condra to play on the wing. 9. Can Bobby Ryan find his scoring touch again? Bobby Ryan still has a team-leading 21 goals, but the winger has been moved away from his regular linemates and has struggled for the past few weeks. Ryan has just five goals in his last 24 games and that pace would make him only a 17-goal scorer over the course of a full season. Ryan may have been battling some sort of undisclosed injury and was even given some time off by MacLean after the Olympic break ended. If he can return to his form from the start of the season - when he scored nine goals in the first 16 games - the Senators will not be so worried about their offensive production. 10. Could Curtis Lazar see any NHL action this season? No player within the Senators organization has seen their stock rise as much as Curtis Lazar in the past few months. Had it not been for an injury in training camp, the teenager could have pushed for an NHL roster spot to start the season in Ottawa. But he is receiving rave reviews for his play with Edmonton in the WHL and is being talked about as one of the most NHL-ready players in the world right now. However, its doubtful that we will see Lazar in a Senators jersey until next fall. His Oil Kings could be primed for a deep run in the playoffs and the Senators would love to see him gain experience at that level before making the jump to the NHL. Craig Kimbrel Jersey .The seventh-seeded Raonic was scheduled to play U.S. Open finalist Kei Nishikori of Japan, but was replaced in the Group B pool by Spanish substitute David Ferrer.Raonic, who was 0-2 at the year-end event, said he suffered the injury late in the first set of Tuesdays 6-3, 7-6 loss to Murray. Rafael Devers Jersey . Ricciardos exclusion from the results tarnished what had been a day of celebration for local fans, who were jubilant that the Red Bull driver had apparently become the first Australian to finish on the podium at his home race. However just before midnight, stewards ruled that Ricciardos car had "exceeded consistently the maximum allowed fuel flow" and that the team refused an instruction from the races technical delegate Charlie Whiting to change the fuel-flow sensor before the race and a further request during the race to reduce the fuel flow. http://www.officialredsoxfanstore.com/au...sox-jersey/.The result meant Juventus will spend the winter break three points clear of Roma after the league leader beat Cagliari 3-1 on Thursday.Milan remained seventh ahead of the rest of the weekends fixtures, but was provisionally two points behind third-place Napoli in their duel for the final Champions League spot. John Lackey Jersey . Catch the action live on TSN2 at 7:30pm et/4:30pm pt. The Wild lead the Northwest Division and look to get back into the win column after having a season-high seven-game winning streak cut short with Tuesdays 2-1 loss at Winnipeg in the finale of a five-game road trip (4-1-0). Pedro Martinez Jersey . Villarreals victory in Valencia kept it in fourth place and in control of Spains last Champions League spot. Uche broke free in the area in the 10th minute and was brought down by goalkeeper Keylor Navas, who was shown a direct red card.HOUSTON -- Yu Darvish dominated the Houston Astros last season. This year has been a much different story. Jon Singleton drove in three runs, and the Astros handled Darvish again in an 8-3 win over the Texas Rangers on Saturday night to stretch the streak against their in-state rival to seven victories in a row. Darvish (10-7) allowed nine hits and six runs -- five earned -- in four-plus innings in his second-shortest start of the season. It was his second straight tough outing against the Astros after they tagged him for a season-high 10 hits with six runs in six innings on July 9. "Our hitting coach (John Mallee), hes done a tremendous job with getting these guys information on how we can make adjustments after a guy had success against us," manager Bo Porter said. "And to the credit of our players, theyve taken that information and theyve done a good job against arguably one of the best pitchers in our league." Texas manager Ron Washington said the reason why Darvish struggled was simple. "Just didnt have any command of his fastball and couldnt find another pitch he could go to until he went back to that fastball," Washington said. "Just didnt get comfortable on the mound tonight, had no rhythm. Just wasnt his night." Singleton had an RBI single in Houstons two-run first and added a two-run double as the Astros tacked on four runs in the fifth. Houstons Scott Feldman (6-8) allowed eight hits and three runs with six strikeouts in 6 1-3 innings. He held the Rangers scoreless until Jim Adduci hit his first major league home run with two outs in the sixth inning. The two-run shot landed in the first row in right field to cut the lead to 6-2. Shin-Soo Choo had four hits, and his single in the ninth inning was the 1,000th hit of his career. Matt Dominguezs RBI single after Singletons double chased Darvish in the fifth. He was replaced by Nate Adcock, who was greeted by a run-scoring single by Marwin Gonzalez. Darvish struggled with control early and walked two of the first three batters he faced, with the second walk coming on four pitches. He struck out Marc Krauss before Singletons RBI single made it 1-0. Dominguez followed with a single, and an error on the play by second baseman Rougned Odor allowed Chrris Carter to score and push the lead to 2-0.dddddddddddd "We were relentless," Singleton said. "We made him throw a lot of pitches, and when he did make mistakes we capitalized on them." Carter, who had three homers in the previous two games, continued his hot-hitting with two hits, including an RBI double in the eighth inning. Houston rookie Mike Foltynewicz pitched a scoreless ninth and wowed the crowd when he threw two consecutive 100 mph fastballs to Odor. THIRD TIMES THE CHARM Texas rookie pitcher Phil Klein struggled in his first two major league outings, giving up homers to the first batter he faced in both. In his third appearance on Saturday night he finally got on track, pitching a perfect seventh inning with one strikeout. TRAINERS ROOM Rangers: OF Mike Carp left in the middle of the third inning with tightness in his left groin and is listed as day to day. OF Alex Rios took a second straight game off after he re-aggravated a sprained right ankle on Wednesday. Manager Ron Washington said Rios will start on Sunday. LHP Derek Holland (left knee surgery) struck out four in three scoreless innings in his third rehabilitation start at Double-A Frisco on Saturday night. Holland hasnt played in the majors this season. Astros: 2B Jose Altuve was out of the lineup Saturday after leaving Friday nights game with discomfort in his neck. Altuve said that he is OK and that he expects to play on Sunday. CF Dexter Fowler (back) made his second start of a rehabilitation assignment with Triple-A Oklahoma City on Saturday night. Manager Bo Porter said he expects Fowler to be activated next week, barring a setback. OF Alex Presley (strained right side) took batting practice on the field on Saturday for the first time since being put on the disabled list on July 8. "For the most part I was pleased," Presley said after batting practice. "Just a little stiff, but besides that nothing too major." UP NEXT Texas right-hander Nick Martinez looks to snap a seven-game skid when he opposes Dallas Keuchel. Martinez, who hasnt won since May 24, has gone 0-3 with a 7.29 ERA in his four starts since returning from the disabled list. Keuchel has allowed one earned run or fewer in each of his last three starts. ' ' '