The Ottawa Senators have been playing some better hockey of late and hope to carry that momentum into the Holiday break.
The Sens are in Washington tonight to take on the Capitals before heading home for the holidays. They’ll then have four days off before returning to the ice on Saturday against the Detroit Red Wings.
Washington looks like a team trending in the right direction since turning over the reigns to former-Nashville Predators Head Coach Barry Trotz. They currently hold the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference and are one of the teams the Senators are chasing right now. They’ve won back to back games, have a 6-2-2 record in their last ten and currently have a four point cushion over the Senators. It’s a little early in the season for must-win games but the Sens could certainly do themselves a huge favour with a regulation win in Washington tonight.
Historically, the Senators have had their way with the Capitals, winning the last seven head to head match ups between the two teams.
With only 12 healthy bodies, the forward combinations have become a little more straightforward for Dave Cameron. In Saturday’s game in Montreal, he relied pretty heavily on three lines with Colin Greening and David Legwand seeing limited ice time. It will be interesting to see if he does the same thing against the Caps. Those two will start the game on the team’s fourth line along with Erik Condra.
Here’s how the Senators are expected to line up for this one.
MacArthur-Turris-Stone
Hoffman-Zibanejad-Ryan
Michalek-Pageau-Chiasson
Greening-Legwand-Condra
Wiercioch-Karlsson
Cowen-Ceci
Borowiecki-Gryba
Craig Anderson gets the start in the Ottawa goal. Puck drop is scheduled for just after 7:00 PM with the game available on TSN5.
-Some exciting news from the World Juniors this morning as Team Canada has announced that Ottawa Senators’ forward Curtis Lazar will be the Captain of this year’s team. Sam Reinhart and Connor McDavid will wear the A’s.
