After a tough weekend in which they picked up just one of a possible four points, the Senators now head to Columbus, hoping to get their game back on track.
Tough schedule for the Senators this week as they are in Columbus tonight, return home to play Chicago again on Thursday and then back on the road to face the Boston Bruins on Saturday night. This feels like a pretty important game for the Sens especially with two tough opponents on the horizon. A minor bump in the road could become a five game losing streak pretty quick.
Tonight’s opposition, the Columbus Blue Jackets have lost two straight and three of four, dropping to 4-4-0 on the season. Tonight is their first game back home after a four game road trip that started in Ottawa a couple Saturdays ago. The Senators won 3-2 that night with Mike Hoffman scoring the game winner. Columbus outshot Ottawa 40-35.
After five games in the pressbox, it appears as though Jared Cowen will return to the Ottawa blueline in place of Patrick Wiercioch. Just an optional morning skate for the Senators this morning so line combinations remain up in the air. It looks like Patrick Wiercioch, Mike Hoffman and Colin Greening are the scratches. Here’s how the Sens are expected to line up
MacArthur-Turris-Ryan
Michalek-Zibanejad-Chiasson
Smith-Legwand-Neil
Condra-Lazar-Stone
Phillips-Karlsson
Cowen-Ceci
Borowiecki-Gryba
We do know that Robin Lehner gets the start in the Ottawa goal. Sergei Bobrovsky broke his finger in practice yesterday and is headed to the IR. Sens will see Curtis McElhinney again tonight.
Puck drop is scheduled for just after 7:00 PM with the game available on TSN5.
-Lots of talk about Jared Cowen’s availability the last couple days. Teams are definitely interested but that doesn’t mean Ottawa is necessarily ready to give up on him just yet. I would expect that at this point it’s mostly low ball offers being sent Murray’s way as teams look at Cowen as a bit of a project at this point. The Senators could give him away for next to nothing or take one more season to work with him and hope there’s some progress. I’d prefer patience in this situation.
-Thanks to the good folks at Broker4Tickets, we have a fun little Game Day contest. It’s going to be pretty simple- highest rated comment of the day gets a $25 gift certificate from Broker4Tickets. Whoever has the highest amount of up votes on a comment by puck drop tonight will be named the winner. I am fully aware that there are ways to manipulate a contest like this and you are encouraged to do so. Vote from multiple devices. Get friends and family to click for you. Down vote the competition. Whatever it takes! I regret this contest already….Good luck everyone!
