GAME DAY!
The last five days have felt like an eternity and in some ways, a little bit like the build up to the start of the NHL season.
It’s as though an entire off-season has unfolded in the last week. The team made a big-name acquisition and we’ve all had to endure an excruciating wait before we could see the shiny new toy in action. We had time to breakdown the trade, talk about where the new guy will fit in the line up, analyze his strengths and weaknesses and even panic a little bit about whether he’d sign an extension 18 months from now. All before he even played a game with the Ottawa Senators.
Now we get to finally watch him play! Well, soon anyway.
Matt Duchene makes his Ottawa debut as the Senators and Avalanche drop the puck on a Swedish back to back at the Ericsson Globe Arena in Stockholm, Sweden.
Obviously all eyes will be on Duchene in this one. Not only is he making his Ottawa debut but he’s doing it against the team with which he played the first 586 games of his NHL career. Duchene made it quite clear he didn’t want to play in Colorado anymore and that obviously didn’t sit well with some of his teammates.
Guy Boucher met with the media in Sweden yesterday er today and provided a bit of a preview on his line up for this one.
Right now, the Coach is considering his options, including a return to the 11/7 alignment that they have used on a few occasions this season. If they go with seven defenceman, Ben Harpur would get a chance to play. If it’s 12 forwards, then it sounds like Nick Paul would play in the spot of Jack Rodewald.
#Sens Head Coach Guy Boucher discusses the line-up for tomorrow’s game against the Colorado Avalanche in Stockholm. pic.twitter.com/NaIEg90NOS
— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) November 9, 2017
Based on the last few days of practice, here’s how the Senators are expected to line up for this one. We’ll confirm these combinations tomorrow morning or later today or whenever the hell they have their morning skate.
Dzingel-Brassard-Stone
Smith-Duchene-Hoffman
Pyatt-Pageau-Burrows
DiDomenico-Thompson
Claesson-Karlsson
Phaneuf-Oduya
Harpur/Wideman-Ceci
Craig Anderson gets the start in goal for Ottawa.
Puck drop is scheduled for 2:00 PM which means that some of our daytime comment section regulars will be exposed to the madness that is the in-game comment section. Prepare yourselves.
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 6-3-5 | 8-6-0 |
| Goals For | 3.57 (4th) | 3.36 (9th) |
| Goals Against | 3.07 (T-16th) | 3.36 (25th) |
| Power Play | 20.0% (12th) | 19.3% (14th) |
| Penalty Kill | 80.5% (17th) | 78.6% (22nd) |
| Ice Time Leaders | Karlsson- 25:36 Ceci- 22:30 Phaneuf- 21:44 |
Johnson- 26:19 Barrie- 22:10 Landeskog- 19:58 |
| Leading Scorers | Stone- 16 Hoffman- 13 Karlsson- 13 |
MacKinnon- 14 Barrie- 14 Rantanen- 12 |
| Team Save % | .903% (19th) | .900% (T-23rd) |
| Matt Duchenes | 1 | 0 |
| Team Shooting % | 11.3% (7th) | 10.8% (8th) |
