This five game road trip is going to be a great measuring stick for the Ottawa Senators and in some ways, may set the course for the rest of their season.
Ottawa will kick it off with a tough back to back tonight against the Red Wings and then tomorrow against the Blues. Then they travel to Florida for another back to back on Friday (Florida) and Saturday night (Tampa Bay). They close out the trip on Tuesday against the Islanders.
Six points would be a spectacular outcome. Heck, even four of ten would probably be acceptable. It starts tonight against the Detroit Red Wings.
The Wings are one of the teams currently ahead of Ottawa in the East. Ottawa trails them by three points but with a game in hand. Detroit is 10-5-5 on the season include an impressive 6-2-2 record at the Joe Louis Arena. Which is a great thing for them as they’ll play 12 of their next 15 games on home ice. Sens may catch a bit of a break as it looks like Pavel Datsyuk will miss the game for Detroit.
Based on reports from the morning skate, it looks like Paul MacLean will make a couple changes to his line up heading into this one. On the blueline, Patrick Wiercioch will take the place of Chris Phillips for the second straight game. I feel like I’ve said this 50 times over the last couple seasons but this is a great opportunity for Wiercioch to force his way up the depth chart a little bit. Colin Greening comes out of the line up while Curtis Lazar draws back in. With Lazar returning, Mika Zibanejad shifts to the wing.
Here’s how MacLean is expected to line ’em up.
MacArthur-Turris-Chiasson
Ryan-Legwand-Zibanejad
Michalek-Smith-Neil
Hoffman-Lazar-Stone
Borowiecki-Karlsson
Cowen-Ceci
Wiercioch-Gryba
Craig Anderson gets the start in the Ottawa goal. Puck drop is scheduled for just after 7:30 PM with the game available on TSN5 and RDS.
