After a disappointing performance in their home opener, the Ottawa Senators had a couple days to rest and to think about what went wrong.
They’ll be looking for a much better effort tonight when they take on Nick Foligno and the Columbus Blue Jackets.
It’s early in the season so I find I’m having a hard time making any sort of assessment of this Senators team. They’ve won two out of three games but even in their victories, showed that there are obviously some issues to address. But at the same time, they picked up four of six points, are undefeated on the road and according to advanced stats, Cowen and Borowiecki are the best defence pairing on the team.
Basically, it’s kind of been a weird start for the Ottawa Senators.
One thing we know for certain is that things have been much worse for tonight’s opposition, the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Expectations are high for Columbus and rightfully so. They have a ton of talent at all positions yet haven’t been able to pull it together in the early going. They’ve lost all three games (NYR,NYR,BUF) by a combined score of 13-6. It’s been an ugly start yet perhaps most surprising has been the reaction from Columbus General Manager Jarmo Kekalainen, whose patience is clearly wearing thin already.
Ottawa will have to be at their best tonight because they’ll be facing an extremely desperate Columbus team, eager for their first win of the season.
And after the way Sunday’s game played out, the Senators should be just as desperate.
Dave Cameron has his team on the ice for the morning skate and it looks like they’ll go with the same line up. Here’s how Cameron has them lined up at the morning skate.
Hoffman-Turris-Stone
MacArthur-Zibanejad-Ryan
Michalek-Pageau-Lazar
Chiasson-Smith-Neil
Methot-Karlsson
Wiercioch-Ceci
Cowen-Borowiecki
Craig Anderson gets the start in the Ottawa goal. Puck drop is scheduled for just after 7:00 PM with the game available on Sportsnet One and TVA Sports.
