Karlsson has some interesting comments about Cooke this morning

Star defenseman Erik Karlsson spoke to the Ottawa media this morning for the first time since his injury.

He’s obviously not happy about Matt Cooke’s antics and felt his injury should have been prevented.

“He knows exactly what he is doing out there,” Karlsson said of Cooke via Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun. “That is why I am sitting here with leg in a cast. I still think it’s a situation that could have been prevented. I don’t think he did it on purpose,” Karlsson said. “He meant to hit me hard and knock me out.”

Karlsson told the media he never responded to Cooke’s text message. “He has been after me before,” Karlsson said.

Meanwhile for all of the Daniel Alfredsson to Pittsburgh chatter,

the Penguins might be the last team Ottawa would want to help out for a Stanley Cup run. Count the Bruins and Red Wings as two teams that will interest Alfredsson were the Senators to fall out of the playoff race by late March.

Despite a number of injuries to their key players, Ottawa keeps on winning, defeating the New York Rangers last night 3-2 in a shootout.

The Senators enter Friday’s action seventh in the Eastern Conference with 22 points and just two points out of first place in the East. Things are that tight.