Heading into this series and starting on the road, a split of the games in Pittsburgh was seen as the ideal scenario.
But now with a dramatic Game 1 win under their belt, Ottawa has a chance to really grab control of the series. Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Final between the Senators and Penguins goes tonight in Pittsburgh.
While the Senators were clearly the better team in the series opener, they can expect to see the defending Champions at their absolute best tonight. The last thing the heavily-favoured Penguins want is to lose both games on home ice to start the series.
A strong start and fending off that early Penguins push will be key for the Senators. And avoiding penalties would be nice too. Ottawa did a hell of a job on the penalty kill in Game 1 but need to do a better job of staying out of the box. While they were able to keep them relatively quiet on Saturday, you can’t be giving skilled guys like Crosby (Pageau) and Malkin so many opportunities with the man advantage.
Looks like the Senators will have another optional morning skate today with Guy Boucher scheduled to meet with the media at 5:00 PM in Pittsburgh.
Line up will remain a bit of a mystery until then but based on his comments yesterday, it sounds like there’s a chance that Viktor Stalberg could be available for this one. Ryan Dzingel and Tommy Wingels were both under ten minutes on Saturday and would be the candidates to come out. We’ll confirm the line up later today.
Ryan-Pageau-Stone
MacArthur-Turris-Hoffman
Dzingel-Brassard-Burrows
Pyatt-Smith-Wingels/Stalberg
Methot-Karlsson
Phaneuf-Ceci
Claesson-Wideman
Craig Anderson gets the start in the Ottawa goal. Puck drop is scheduled for just after 8:00 PM.
GO SENS GO!!
