OTTAWA -- The Ottawa Senators were all about precaution Wednesday night. While Bobby Ryan and Erik Karlsson played significant roles in Ottawas 5-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens, neither was on the bench by the end of the game. Ryan left with just over five minutes remaining in the second period after a collision behind the net, but returned shortly after. However the Senators opted on the side of caution and kept him out of the lineup for the third period. Ryan was hit by Greg Pateryn and admitted he suffered a bit of a stinger from the contact. "I think we erred on the side of caution which I certainly understand," said Ryan. "It just kept shooting down my hand and I could feel it. The doctors made a decision to rest it and well see how it feels (Thursday)." Karlsson left the game late in the third, but said his leaving had nothing to do with his ankle. Last season Karlsson suffered a partially lacerated Achilles. "It was just precaution, nothing serious," said Karlsson, who had three assists. "It was nothing special, just a little bit tired and no need to play any more minutes." In addition, the Senators had also been without defenceman Patrick Wiercioch for the start of the second period, but he did return and finish the game. Senators coach Paul MacLean did say, "it seems everyones going to be all right and nobody has anything thats going to be long term. It was mostly just precautionary during the game to take people out to make sure nothing else happened." Aside from the injuries MacLean was pleased with the teams overall play. In addition to Ryan, Cory Conacher, Clarke MacArthur, Milan Michalek and Mika Zibanejad also scored for Ottawa, while Andrew Hammond made 24 saves. Magnus Nygren and Raphael Diaz scored for Montreal, while Peter Budaj faced 32 shots. The Senators are 4-1 in pre-season play, while the Canadiens are 2-3-1. The teams meet again Thursday in Montreal. This was their first meeting since the Senators eliminated the Canadiens last spring in the playoffs. Montreal opened the scoring as Nygren beat Hammond with a shot from just inside the blueline. Ottawa tied the game minutes later as Conacher fed a trailing MacArthur. Ottawa ended the period with a 2-1 lead on Ryans power play goal. The Senators made it 3-1 on Michaleks goal as he managed to dig the puck out during a goal-mouth scramble and roofed it over Budaj. Conacher made it 4-1 with a power play goal, while Zibanejad picked up his first of the pre-season to make it 5-1. Conacher is one of four players MacLean is considering to play on the right side of Kyle Turris with MacArthur. "The way he played (Wednesday) is an indication of how he can play and the abilities he has," said MacLean. "That line was dangerous most of the night and he showed us what he can do and what he can bring to that line and thats important." Hammond made some of his best saves in the third despite allowing a weak goal glove side to Diaz. "After giving up the first shot like he did and then to come back and battle and play and he made some saves," added MacLean. "We were impressed with him with the way that he played." Canadiens coach Michel Therrien admitted he felt his team was outplayed on this night and says he plans to play more of his veterans in Thursdays game. "This was likely the last game for some of our rookies," admitted Therrien. "It was a good experience for them to play against a team that had a lot of veterans. They got to experience what a game is like at this level." Notes: G Nathan Lawson was scheduled to start the game, but was injured in the warm-up forcing Andrew Hammond into action. Kobe Bryant Shoes Deals .Y. - Sven Andrighetto scored once and set up two more as the Hamilton Bulldogs hung on to defeat the host Adirondack Flames 5-3 on Tuesday in American Hockey League action. Kobe Bryant Shoes From China . Jackson Houck added a goal and two assists for the Giants (28-23-10), who halted a five-game slide, while Tyler Morrison, Mason Geertsen and Dominik Volek each scored once. Matt Bellerive scored both goals for the Blazers (12-43-5), who are 1-9-0 in their last 10 outings. https://www.cheapkobebryantshoes.com/ . You can watch all the action on TSN2 beginning at 7pm et/4pm pt. Pineda won his second straight start last Wednesday against Chicago, as he held the Cubs to just four hits over six scoreless innings to run his record to 2-0, while lowering his ERA to 1. Kobe Bryant Shoes For Sale . -- Jacksonville Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew practiced in a limited capacity Friday, a positive sign he might be able to play against the Tennessee Titans. Clearance Kobe Bryant Shoes . Trailing 2-1 from the first leg, Fiorentina levelled on aggregate in the 14th minute when Joaquin Sanchez Rodriguez headed back a long ball from David Pizarro and Pasqual smashed home an angled volley.It really didnt come as a surprise that the Florida Panthers fired head coach Kevin Dineen Friday, but its not like a change in the coaching staff is going to magically cure what ails this team. Any time a team fails to meet expectations, coaches end up on the chopping block, but that leads to the question: why would there have been expectations put upon the Florida Panthers for the 2013-2014 season? Go back to the 2011-2012 season, when the Panthers won the Southeast Division, with 94 points in 82 games, despite recording 32 regulation and overtime wins, a total that tied non-playoff teams Buffalo, Carolina (who finished last in the Southeast Division) and Colorado for 20th in the league. The Panthers also had a minus-24 goal differential, so anything beyond the point total in the standings suggested they were not really a playoff-calibre team. Consider them a prime example of a team not being what its record is. Then the Panthers proceeded to lose in double-overtime of Game Seven (after losing in overtime in Game Six) in the first round of the playoffs against the eventual Eastern-Conference-Champion New Jersey Devils, making it easy to sell the idea that the Panthers were "this close" to competing with the top teams in the league. It needs to be noted, however, that the Panthers overachieved in 2011-2012, to even generate mediocre results disguised as playoff-worthy. Florida needed to spend a lot of money in the summer of the 2011 season just to get above the salary floor and, as a result, cobbled together a make-shift roster, handing out some contracts that had surprisingly long-term implications. Sure, Florida signed Tomas Fleischmann (four years, $18-million), and he scored a career-high 61 points in 2011-2012, and has generally been a productive scorer since. C Marcel Goc (three years, $5.19-million) has been okay and G Jose Theodore (two years, $3-million) was a low-risk move, but the Panthers also inked RW Scottie Upshall (four years, $14-million), D Ed Jovanovski (four years, $16.5-million) and LW Sean Bergenheim (four years, $11-million), none of whom has provided a decent return on investment. (Injuries have admittedly played a part in their lack of production.) The Panthers also dipped into GM Dale Tallons past and traded for some former Chicago Blackhawks: D Brian Campbell, RW Kris Versteeg and RW Tomas Kopecky. That roster didnt have any business harbouring playoff expectations yet, with Dineen taking over for Peter DeBoer behind the bench, the Panthers defied the odds and reached the postseason, thanks in large part to Fleischmann, Versteeg and Stephen Weiss, their top line that combined for 70 goals and 172 points. Campbell added 53 points while playing nearly 27 minutes per game. That quartet made up the entire list of Florida Panthers to record more than 33 points that season, so there wasnt a lot coming from the supporting cast. The 2013 season brought much worse results, particularly when injuries limited Weiss and Versteeg to a total of 27 games and the goaltending went from decent, ranking 11th with a .914 save percentage, to a league-worst .dddddddddddd887 save percentage in the lockout-shortened 2013 season. Those injuries, and subpar goaltending, over a small-sample season may have been what led Tallon to still harbour expectations for this team coming into the 2013-2014 season. Or maybe its because there is a new owner calling the shots that the Panthers couldnt simply see the 2013-2014 season as one for development of their young talent. After all, the Panthers have added some promising young players including LW Jonathan Huberdeau, C Aleksander Barkov and C Nick Bjugstad, who are all playing significant minutes. D Erik Gudbranson, the third overall pick in 2010, and D Dmitry Kulikov, the 14th pick in 2009 are still works in progress, but young enough to be part of what the Panthers are trying to build. G Jacob Markstrom is supposed to be the goaltender of the future, even if the 23-year-old has struggled this year. Forwards Vincent Trocheck and Drew Shore and defencemen Alex Petrovic and Colby Robak have been in the AHL, playing for new head coach Peter Horacheck. Trocheck, who has 11 points in 11 games as a first-year pro and nearly made the Panthers out of training camp, could get his opportunity soon. In the summer of 2013, the Panthers didnt spend big money, but brought in a lot of veterans on low-money deals. Defencemen Tom Gilbert has been a bargain as a top-four defenceman while Matt Gilroy and checking forward Jesse Winchester have been decent. Veteran forwards Brad Boyes and Scott Gomez along with blueliner Ryan Whitney have not been effective and goaltender Tim Thomas hasnt been able to stay healthy in his attempt to return to action after a year off. As a result, the Panthers have the leagues 28th-ranked goal differential (minus-1.36 per game), ahead of only the Edmonton Oilers and Buffalo Sabres. Unfortunately, the goaltending hasnt gotten any better this season, ranking 28th with an .885 save percentage, and no team can win with goaltending of that calibre, let alone a team that isnt scoring at the other end of the ice and the Panthers rank 29th in 5-on-5 shooting percentage when the score is close. The good news, according to the probabilities of advanced stats, is that the Panthers arent likely to maintain such terrible shooting and save percentages all season, so they are due to get some better results; a little "puck luck" as it were. Of course, being better than their current 3-9-4 record doesnt mean all that much. When those young players start to control play more consistently and the Panthers start getting adequate goaltending, they may turn the corner, but thats going to require patience and the expectations placed on this team dont necessarily allow for patience. Trouble is, when a general manager makes moves that appear to reveal a lack of patience, its fair to start wondering if the next one on the chopping block will be the GM. Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook. ' ' '