On Friday night, the Ottawa Senators started their season with a bang.
After 310 days without Sens hockey, it was a storybook season opener. Ottawa dominated the game in every way imaginable and thoroughly trounced the hapless Toronto Maple Leafs. Reports suggest they played again the next night but that has not yet been confirmed.
All I keep seeing from the alleged Saturday night game is this replay and to be honest, that barely seems real.
The Ottawa Senators continue their season tonight against the Winnipeg Jets.
This past weekend gave us our first look at what will be a bizarre regular season schedule. More of the same heading into this week. Ottawa and Winnipeg will play three straight including two here in Ottawa before heading to Winnipeg for the third game of the mini-series.
The Senators and Jets really don’t have much of a history or rivalry but three straight should dial up the intensity pretty quick.
Jets suck.
JETS SUCK!
Yea that felt right.
Winnipeg has also played just twice including a 4-3 win over the Calgary Flames last Thursday and a 3-1 loss to the Maple Leafs last night. Outside of a second period where Toronto outshot them to the tune of 22-6, it was a fairly even contest. Should be interesting to see how much the Jets have left in the tank though.
Meanwhile for DJ Smith and the Senators, the focus is on putting together a better effort than they did on Saturday night. Yesterday’s practice was all about the breakout. In both games, Ottawa struggled getting the puck out of their own end of the rink with control. That will be a point of emphasis for the Sens tonight and likely, throughout the season.
Also this 🙁
Alex Galchenyuk takes his place in the line up. Colin White, Christian Wolanin and Artyom Zub are the extras. Here’s how the Coach lined them up.
Tkachuk-Norris-Batherson
Galchenyuk-Stepan-Dadonov
Paul-Tierney-C.Brown
Paquett-Anisimov-Watson
Chabot-Gudbranson
Reilly-Zaitsev
Coburn-J.Brown
Matt Murray is in the starter’s end at the game day skate.
Puck drop is scheduled for just after 7:00 PM. The game is available on TSN5 and TVA. If the ol’ ham radio is your preferred method of broadcast, Dean Brown and Gord Wilson have you covered at the frequency of one thousand two hundred.
I know what you’re thinking- I don’t know a damn thing about these two teams and how they match-up. Let the HEAD2HEAD Table fill in the blanks. The HEAD2HEAD Table is brought to you by the good folks at Dog and Cat Repair in Tempe, Arizona.
| HEAD2HEAD |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 1-1-0 (2 pts) | 1-1-0 (2 pts) |
| Goals For | 2.50 (T-21st) | 3.50 (10th) |
| Goals Against | 3.00 (T-17th) | 3.00 (T-17th) |
| Power Play | 12.5% (16th) | 10.0% (20th) |
| Penalty Kill | 50.0% (29th) | 66.7% (T-24th) |
| Shots For | 31.0 (T-16th) | 21.5 (30th) |
| Shots Against | 32.0 (T-18th) | 31.5 (T-16th) |
| Leading Scorers | Connor- 3 pts Laine- 3 pts Forbort- 2 pts Pionk- 2 pts |
Zaitsev- 3 pts Tkachuk- 3 pts Batherson- 2 pts Chabot- 2 pts |
| Starting Goalie | Laurent Brossoit 0-0-0 -.– GAA, .— sv% |
Matt Murray (TBC) 1-1-0 3.02 GAA, .905 sv% |
