After just barely hanging on for their second win of the season, the Ottawa Senators are right back at it tonight in their home opener against the Montreal Canadiens.
In the lead up to last night’s game against the Leafs, I talked about a rekindled hatred for the team from Toronto but said that hatred seemed like too strong of of word. When it comes to the Montreal Canadiens, the word doesn’t seem quite strong enough.
Two playoff match ups in the last three years will do that I suppose.
Montreal is again expected to be among the top teams in the Atlantic Division. Or so say the experts anyway. This is once again a team that will rely heavily on their goaltender, even if Tomas Plekanec is in denial about that fact. If not for Carey Price, the Canadiens probably aren’t aren’t playoff team.
The Senators catch a bit of a break though as Carey Price gets a rare night off. Rookie Mike Condon will make the first start of his NHL career tonight.
No morning skate for the Senators so we’ll have to wait until a little closer to game time to find out if Dave Cameron has any changes in mind.
There hasn’t been much talk about the possibility of giving Matt O’Connor the start this evening but you would think it has to at least be a consideration. Home opener is sort of a tough spot to throw him in for his first start but the numbers are pretty clear when it comes to goalies making back to back starts.
Shane Prince and Chris Wideman are both waiting to get into a game too and could be an option for Cameron. Chris Neil played the least of any forward last night, logging just 8:51. Wiercioch had the lowest time on ice of any defenceman, at 14:58.
We’ll find out the line up at about 3:45 PM when the Coach meets with the media.
Puck drop is scheduled for just after 7:00 PM.
