SNAPSHOTS: After being absent from skate, Thomas Chabot says he’s good to go Friday

Norris and Stuetzle are roommates with Tkachuk at his Ottawa home, so there’s been a mix of English and German when they’re at home or in the locker room with Batherson.

“We kind of joke around a bit. We’ll talk a little in German or I’ll greet him with some German when we wake up, or at the rink joking around” Norris said. “But (Stuetzle’s) English is really good. I was surprised. Hopefully, he can continue to speak German with me so I don’t lose it.”

BALCERS HEADING BACK TO SAN JOSE

Rudolfs Balcers is going back where it all started.

Acquired by the Senators in the trade that sent Erik Karlsson to San Jose in September 2018, Balcers, 23, was picked up by the Sharks on waivers on Tuesday. He returns to the organization that drafted him No. 142 overall in 2015.

Balcers had 16 goals and 36 points in 33 games last season with the Belleville Senators and, if he’d slipped waivers, he would have been a depth player for Ottawa. Yes, he’s had lots of success at the minor-league level, but he hasn’t been able to replicate that in the NHL.

In 51 games with the Senators last season, he had six goals and 11 assists for 17 points, and he wasn’t about to get much playing time under head coach D.J. Smith with the forward depth the club has.

The other Senators players on waivers — Micheal Haley, Christian Jaros, Filip Chlapik, J.C. Beaudin, Logan Shaw and Matthew Peca — cleared. Haley skated with the Senators group Tuesday, so he’ll be on the taxi squad.

Defenceman Max Lajoie, who appeared to be not in the Senators’ plans any longer, was traded to the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday. Photo by Bruce Garrioch /Postmedia

THE LAST WORDS