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“I still think about him and I pray for him when I think about what I’m going through and I would imagine he’s hopefully on a similar path to recovery and being back on the ice shortly,” Backes said.

Backes skated with the Bruins on Saturday for the first time receiving a concussion from the collision with Sabourin. There’s no timetable for his return and he still has work to do before returning to action, but he’s feeling much better.

“I’m just going through the process of what the doctors are telling me and trying to get back as soon as possible,” Backes said. “Some of that comes quicker, some of it has been fits and starts, but feeling really great as of 10 days ago.

“I feel like more myself and I couldn’t be happier to now be a full go and hopefully playing contact hockey against a different team in short order.”

Photo by Errol McGihon / Postmedia

THE LAST WORDS

The NHL has released its ballot for all-star game weekend Jan. 24-25 in St. Louis. There are three Ottawa players on the ballot: defenceman Thomas Chabot, winger Brady Tkachuk and centre Jean-Gabriel Pageau. Last year, Chabot represented the Senators in the all-star festivities at San Jose. It’s nice to see Pageau get consideration because he has been one of the the Senators’ top players through the first quarter of the season … Former Ottawa 67’s forward Sean Monahan skated in his 500th NHL game Saturday with the Calgary Flames against the Senators. He suited up for his first NHL game on Oct. 3, 2013, and went into Saturday’s contest with 178 goals and 205 assists for 383 points, which rank No. 16 in Flames history … Ottawa coach D.J. Smith was calling this the “Chucky Bowl” because Ottawa’s Brady Tkachuk was facing off against his brother, Matthew. Their grandfather was in the stands, wearing a jersey split between Senators and Flames colours … Smith made one change for Saturday, inserting centre J.C. Beaudin into the lineup in place of Logan Brown, who was a healthy scratch. Brown played 10 minutes 46 seconds against the Minnesota Wild on Friday, had an assist and was minus-2. “More back-to-back. I wanted to get (Beaudin) in. I didn’t want him to sit very long. He’s come along really nice,” Smith said. “I wasn’t sure how (Artem Anisimov) would feel on the back-to-back. My plan was to take one of them out. I wasn’t sure who and Logan got a good skate in and he’ll be back on this road trip.”

Photo by Al Charest / Postmedia

bgarrioch@postmedia.com

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