To say that the start of the 2018/2019 regular season has been surprising would be a wee bit of an understatement.
Coming into the year, just about every expert had the Ottawa Senators locked into the 31st overall position. Dead last and by a fair margin seemed to be the consensus among those paid to offer up opinions for a living. USA Today, which apparently does hockey coverage, projected the Senators at 52 points. 52!
So ya, it’s safe to say that not many people saw this coming.
The Senators are 4-2-1 to start the year and are playing with a spark that just wasn’t there at any point last season. Well except maybe at the start of the year before the wheels completely fell off post-Sweden trip. Hmm. Okay perhaps “it’s still early” is required here.
Either way, the Senators look to keep things rolling when they play host to Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, David Pastrnak and whoever else plays for the Boston Bruins.
As good as the Sens have looked recently, they were beaten pretty soundly by this Boston team just over two weeks ago. Boston’s top line was too much for the Sens that night although to be fair, they are too much for most teams on most nights these days. Shutting down that trio will be key for Boucher’s group.
Could be some tinkering to the Ottawa line up as players continue to make their way back from injury.
Cody Ceci, Alex Formenton and Max McCormick all participated in practice yesterday but only Formenton is ready to return. Meanwhile Ben Harpur was hurt during practice and won’t play. Christian Jaros takes his spot in the line up. 12/6 alignment for this one.
Boedker-Duchene-White
Dzingel-Tierney-Stone
Formenton-Carey-Ryan
Paajarvi-Smith-Pyatt
Chabot-DeMelo
Borowiecki-Wideman
Lajoie-Jaros
Craig Anderson gets the start in goal for Ottawa. Puck drop is scheduled for just after 7:30 PM.
You can catch the game on TSN5, TSN1200 or streamed online at StreamOttawaSenatorsHockeyGamesOnline.org. Or something like that.
Table Time!
| HEAD2HEAD |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 4-2-2 (10 pts) | 4-2-1 (9 pts) |
| Goals For | 3.38 (T-9th) | 4.00 (2nd) |
| Goals Against | 2.88 (T-13th) | 3.57 (24th) |
| Power Play | 22.7% (T-14th) | 27.3% (T-8th) |
| Penalty Kill | 73.9% (21st) | 76.9% (20th) |
| Shots For | 29.8 (23rd) | 27.9 (26th) |
| Shots Against | 29.1 (9th) | 36.7 (28th) |
| Leading Scorers | Bergeron- 13 pts Marchand- 12 pts Pastrnak- 11 pts |
Tierney- 9 pts Chabot- 9 pts Duchene- 8 pts |
| Starting Goalie | Andy Moog 3.08 GAA .886 sv% |
Craig Anderson 2.99 GAA .920 sv% |
