{"id":21867,"date":"2018-10-12T13:58:55","date_gmt":"2018-10-12T17:58:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=21867"},"modified":"2018-10-12T13:58:55","modified_gmt":"2018-10-12T17:58:55","slug":"formenton-finds-his-place-on-nhl-sens-roster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/formenton-finds-his-place-on-nhl-sens-roster\/","title":{"rendered":"Formenton finds his place on NHL Sens\u2019 roster"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jake Courtepatte<\/strong><\/p>\n

For Alex Formenton, his pre-game routine remains the same no matter what ice he is stepping onto.
\n\u201cI usually just tape my stick, and don\u2019t let it touch the ground until I hit the ice,\u201d said the King City native. \u201cThat\u2019s probably the only weird superstition I have, I just flip it upside down and put it against the wall.\u201d
\n\u201cOther than that, it\u2019s just getting mentally prepared.\u201d
\nOver the past three seasons, those sticks have been leaned up against the walls at the Aurora Tigers and London Knights\u2019 dressing room facilities, and just once with the NHL\u2019s Ottawa Senators at the beginning of the 2017-18 season.
\nYet this year, after making the cut for the first time to officially land a spot on the roster of the team that drafted him in the second round in 2017, he is hoping it will be for 82 games.
\nThe big club\u2019s head coach, Guy Boucher, officially announced Formenton as part of the team\u2019s plan on Oct. 1, just a few days ahead of the team\u2019s season opener.
\n\u201cI love it,\u201d said Formenton on Sunday, three games into the NHL season. \u201cI\u2019ve been learning lots already. It\u2019s been a great experience so far, and I\u2019m having a lot of fun with it.\u201d
\nThough held pointless through the first trio of games, Formenton has shown bursts of speed playing on the wing of the Senators\u2019 third line, something he hopes will help his game translate to the NHL level sooner rather than later.
\nAfter impressing at training camp before the 2017-18 season last year, Formenton was a surprise to dress for the first game of the season before being sent down to his junior club, the Knights. Yet with one NHL game already under his belt, he said the excitement is still just the same.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s all still there. Stepping on the ice is the same every time. Getting that one game in last year at the start of the season, taking an experience like that definitely gives me a little bit of comfort and confidence coming into this season. I got to know some of the older guys, which helped a lot.\u201d
\nAs one of the top prospects in the Senators system, he added that plenty of the more experienced players have \u201ctaken him under their wing\u201d when asked to name some standouts.
\n\u201cThey\u2019re just always there if I have questions, as a young guy just out of the junior system it\u2019s a big transition\u2026they\u2019ve all kind of led me down the right path, so I give credit to all of them.\u201d
\n\u201cI kind of just want to take it day by day, work my hardest, and hopefully every day get better.\u201d
\nWith roots still back in York Region, and a stable NHL roster position for the first time, the next step for the young forward is looking for a place to stay in Ottawa.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ll see, I\u2019m fine with the hotel for now, it\u2019s a nice hotel, so we\u2019ll just have to see.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For Alex Formenton, his pre-game routine remains the same no matter what ice he is stepping onto.
\n\u201cI usually just tape my stick, and don\u2019t let it touch the ground until I hit the ice,\u201d said the King City native. \u201cThat\u2019s probably the only weird superstition I have, I just flip it upside down and put it against the wall.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5GH","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-22 09:00:33","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21867\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}