Ottawa, others prepare for ‘true’ openers

General manager Bryan Murray sees resolve rather than regret in his Ottawa Senators as they prepare for the opening of the NHL season tonight at Toronto.

The Senators lost to the Anaheim Ducks in the Stanley Cup Finals in June, but Murray doesn’t believe his team will wallow in last spring’s disappointment.

“I can understand it’s difficult for players when you lose to come back (energized),” Murray said. “But I think it has been the opposite for us.

“Guys, like Jason Spezza and Dany Heatley and others, look like they are focused.”

The NHL season had a warm-up with Anaheim and Los Angeles splitting two games in London during the weekend, but the true schedule starts today with Anaheim at Detroit, Montreal at Carolina and Dallas at Colorado, in addition to Ottawa’s contest.

There is a buzz in some NHL cities, such as in Atlanta, where season ticket sales are up almost 2,000, and in St. Louis, where sales are up 3,800 to about 9,000.

Also, the Pittsburgh Penguins, with Sidney Crosby as the star attraction, may sell out every game for the first time in franchise history.

The Penguins, adding Petr Sykora and Darryl Sydor, are considered one of the better teams in the Eastern Conference, but the Senators aren’t going away. The Buffalo Sabres and New Jersey Devils, two of the Eastern Conference’s best teams last season, were hit hard by free-agent defections. The Senators retained all of their premium players.

“I think the experience of what we went through should help us going forward,” Murray said.

The Senators lost Mike Comrie and Oleg Saprykin to free agency and traded away Peter Schaefer.

“We lost a little bit of our depth,” Murray said. “Now we have to count on a couple of kids.”

The Senators will start with goalie Ray Emery on the injured list for eight to 10 days.

Doctors clear Maple Leafs’ Bell

Mark Bell was cleared to play by doctors in the NHL’s substance abuse program, but the new Toronto Maple Leafs forward will have to serve the 15-game suspension handed down by the league.

Bell was suspended indefinitely on Sept. 4 and placed into Stage 2 of the program, run jointly by the NHL and the players’ association. He entered the program in September 2006 following his arrest on drunken driving and hit-and-run charges in California when he was a member of the San Jose Sharks.

The NHL added a 15-game suspension for Bell on Sept. 12, and he is eligible to return on Nov. 6.