It was the same old story for the Ottawa Senators on Friday night in Boston. Despite a strong opening twenty minutes in which they took the game to the Bruins, the Senators could not sustain their level of play and allowed the home side to dominate the final 40 minutes. The end result was an embarrassing 5-0 loss to the division leading Bruins.
They’ll take on those same Boston Bruins tonight at the Canadian Tire Centre.
Writing post game wrap ups and game day previews about this hockey team has become a painful and tedious process. It’s the same story lines night in, night out as a team that appears to be pretty strong on paper struggles to find any kind of consistency in their game. Every game it seems like Paul MacLean is sending some sort of message to his star players and last night it was Bobby Ryan that drew the ire of the Coach. The result was far too much of the Greening-Smith-Neil line in a game where the Senators were struggling to create offence.
There’s obviously something that Paul MacLean expects his skilled guys to do during the game that they aren’t doing well enough. But if this team is going to be successful, their best players need to carry them. MacLean needs to realize that and start playing the hell out of his top two lines.
The Senators will make a couple changes to the line up heading into tonight’s tilt with the Bruins. Joe Corvo draws into the line up in place of Eric Gryba. Chris Phillips is being called a game time decision. If he can’t go, Patrick Wiercioch draws in. Here is how the Senators are expected to line up.
MacArthur-Turris-Ryan
Conacher-Zibanejad-Michalek
Greening-Smith-Neil
Kassian-Pageau-Condra
Cowen-Karlsson
Methot-Corvo
Wiercioch-Ceci
Craig Anderson gets the start in the Ottawa goal.
The Daily Chirp- Still lots of talk about the Senators interest in Michael Del Zotto. Ottawa isn’t the only team looking at the Rangers defenceman but they are considered one of the teams leading the pack. Hard to tell what the asking price is for Del Zotto but I suspect it includes one of either Eric Gryba or Patrick Wiercioch and a prospect. The Rangers have apparently asked about Mark Stone in the past.
