With just five games remaining in their preseason schedule, the Ottawa Senators are inching closer to an Opening Night roster.
They’ve already returned three players to their Junior teams and announced that two others had been released from amateur tryout agreements, in the first of many roster moves leading up to the season opener on October 11th in Carolina.
With the clock ticking towards puck drop, the remaining preseason games represent an opportunity for a handful of players to make one last push for a roster spot and for the rest of the group to leave a good impression on the Coaching Staff and Management.
The Ottawa Senators host the Winnipeg Jets on Friday night at the Canadian Tire Centre.
Up front, this is a huge game for the likes of Jiri Smejkal, Ridly Greig, Zack MacEwen and Mark Kastelic. The battle for those bottom six spots has been heated throughout camp and seems to be fairly wide open at this stage of the proceedings.
On defence, the Senators are going to roll out something pretty close to what is expected to be their opening night pairings so not a lot of auditioning happening back there tonight. The third pairing is an interesting one, as Erik Brannstrom skates with Lassi Thomson.
With Brady Tkachuk taking the night off after taking that errant stick in the eye area at practice, Vladimir Tarasenko is expected to get a look on that top line with Tim Stützle and Claude Giroux. Josh Norris won’t play tonight but the expectation is that he’ll suit up for a couple preseason games.
Leevi Merilainen will get the start in goal.
Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 PM. The game is available on TSN3 and TSN5 and on the radio at TSN1200.
