We have seen a little bit of everything from the Ottawa Senators through the first five games of the regular season.
At times, they’ve looked like a team that could surprise some people this year. In a season-opening win against the Leafs and during a near-perfect 58-minute performance against the Jets, the Senators were firing on all cylinders. But then other times, like the second game against Winnipeg or in the third period of Saturday’s loss, it was the complete opposite.
And that seems to be about where the Ottawa Senators are right now. Capable of putting together impressive stretches but unable to string it together consistently.
We’ll see which version shows up when the puck drops in approximately one thousand hours from now. The Senators play Game 1 of a three-game in Vancouver later tonight.
The good news is tonight’s opponent is going through some similar early season struggles.
The Canucks turned some heads during that made-up bubble playoff thingy a few months back and as a result, came into the fake season with some heightened expectations. Unfortunately for Canucks fans, although I’ve never actually met one, Vancouver kind of stinks.
They gave up 22 goals last week. Almost 5.5 a game. In their defence, they don’t really have any. Also, three of those games were against the Montreal Canadiens, who appear to be the class of the division through the first couple weeks of the season.
Some lineup shuffling ahead of this one. Tim Stützle returns and Alex Galchenyuk draws in. Meanwhile Cedric Paquette is out, Michael Haley is back on the taxi squad and Colin White is Colin Grey.
Here’s how DJ Smith has them lined up…
Tkachuk-Norris-Batherson
Stützle-Tierney-Brown
Paul-Anisimov-Dadonov
Galchenyuk-Stepan-Watson
Chabot-Zaitsev
Reilly-Gudbranson
Wolanin-Brown
Marcus Hogberg looked fine in Saturday’s loss but would expect them to go back to Matt Murray tonight.
Puck drop is scheduled for just after 10:00 PM. The game is available on TSN5, RDS, NHL Network, TSN 1200 and the illegal internet streams are expected to flow like water. Remember- if the Senators make you really, really, really mad- viewing of tonight’s game is optional.
Here’s a closer look at how these two squadrons match up.
| HEAD2HEAD |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 1-3-1 (3 pts) | 2-5-0 (4 pts) |
| Goals For | 2.80 (21st) | 2.71 (T-22nd) |
| Goals Against | 4.00 (30th) | 4.71 (31st) |
| Power Play | 15.0% (23rd) | 13.8% (24th) |
| Penalty Kill | 75.0% (T-19th) | 73.5% (23rd) |
| Shots For | 26.8 (T-25th) | 29.1 (19th) |
| Shots Against | 31.6 (21st) | 36.4 (31st) |
| Leading Scorers | Zaitsev- 5 pts Tkachuk- 4 pts Paul-4 pts Norris- 4 pts |
Horvat- 8 pts Boeser- 6 pts Hughes- 6 pts Miller- 5 pts |
| Starting Goalie | Matt Murray (TBD) 1-2-1 3.78 GAA, .880 sv% |
Braden Holtby (TBD) 2-2-0 3.70 GAA, .888 sv% |
