It’s sort of amazing how quickly the whole preseason hockey thing loses its shine.
In the middle of summer, you’d take just about any form of Sens hockey. Even old YouTube clips will do. The idea of preseason hockey, where real live humans in Sens jerseys play some form of competitive hockey, sounds glorious. And then about two shifts into the first game, you’re basically begging for everyone to just stay healthy before things start for real on October 11th.
Three more to go.
The Ottawa Senators continue their seemingly endless preseason schedule with another game in Halifax, this time against Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins.
After tonight, the Senators will visit the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday before playing their final warm-up game on Saturday night against the Montreal Canadiens.
The good news is there have been plenty of positives coming out of the last few weeks. Last night, the Senators picked up their fourth win in five preseason contests, cruising to a 4-2 win over the Florida Panthers. And what’s particularly encouraging is the way the team’s best players have hit the ground running.
While the Senators kept most of the A-team out of the lineup against the Panthers, it was encouraging to see Drake Batherson drag his team to victory. If these preseason performances are any indication, Batherson is poised for a huge bounce-back season. He pretty clearly wasn’t 100% at times last year but he’s back to his old self and skating better than he has in the last couple years. Batherson is expected to suit up again tonight.
Here’s how the Senators will line ’em up for this one.
Tkachuk-Stützle-Giroux
Tarasenko-Greig-Batherson
Kubalik-Rourke-Joseph
Highmore-Ostapchuk-MacEwen
Chabot-Chychrun
Sanderson-Zub
Brannstrom-Hamonic
Joonas Korpisalo will start.
Puck drop is scheduled for 6:00 PM at the Scotiabank Centre in Halifax . The game is available on TSN5 and on the radio at TSN1200.
