Morning Hits: O’Reilly, Sydor, and Phillips
  • Denver Post: Ryan O’Reilly had his first hearing a London court on Thursday, and a second scheduled for September 10th. O’Reilly was arrested and charged with impaired driving and failure to remain at the scene.
  • Steve Karnowski (AP) in the Star Tribune: Wild assistant coach Darryl Sydor has been charged with drunk driving after being pulled over on Thursday around 5:15 pm as he became lost trying to drive his son to a hockey tournament. His blood-level was tested at over four times the legal limit. Sydor has been charged with two counts of second-degree drunken driving as there was a child in the car. He faces a maximum of a year in jail and up to a $3,000 fine.

    “We are aware of the reports regarding Darryl Sydor. We are continuing to gather information and will have further comment at the appropriate time,” the team said in a statement.

  • Don Brennan of the Ottawa Sun: Senators defenseman Chris Phillips hasn’t sure if he’d be able to get back to playing hockey after dealing with back issues. He’s back doing some light skating and working with their strength and condition coach.

    “For my own mental well being,” he said. “You’re just not sure. To start setting some expectations, if those aren’t met, then you get dejected, and get down. It’s just easier not to put myself in that position, and just keep trying to progress until I’m ready.”

    He may not be ready for the start of training camp.

    “Exactly,” said Phillips. “I hope to be (ready for camp). I would like to be. I’m going to work for that. But at the same time I have to be smart, and make sure I’m not doing stuff that’s going to make me have setbacks, that will slow the process down even more.

    “The surgery went really well,” he added. “Having pain and numbness in my leg is 100% gone. I had a few setbacks this summer, from trying to get the muscles back to where they need to be. That’s hard to accept, but it wasn’t totally unexpected.”