Holy hell there’s a hockey game tonight!
Remember the Ottawa Senators? That lovable gang of misfits? You know, the team we spend our entire existence complaining about? They play tonight! It’s a preseason game. It means nothing. But it’s on TV and that’s all that matters.
The Senators continue their quest for a preseason victory as they take on the Blackhawks at the United Center in Chicago.
Ottawa has just two tune up games left before things start for real next week against these same Blackhawks. They’ll wrap up their exhibition schedule on Saturday night at the Bell Centre in Montreal.
For Guy Boucher, these last two games will help with some of the tough decisions he still has to make about his line up.
The Senators have made it clear that they plan on carrying 22 players to start the season although the breakdown of forwards and defenceman is up for debate. In fact, according to Bruce Garrioch, there’s a chance the team carries eight defenceman to start the season. Quantity over quality, as the old saying goes.
Up front, the Senators are still carrying 14 forwards. At least one of those guys will be headed back to Belleville or Junior before the final roster is set. Brady Tkachuk, Alex Formenton, Colin White, Filip Chlapik and Max McCormick (and maybe Zack Smith?) are still on the bubble up front.
On defence, nine guys remain. Ben Harpur, Christian Wolanin, Christian Jaros and Max Lajoie are all battling it out for a spot.
Will be interesting to see who of those nine stands out in the next couple games. Christian Wolanin is the extra on defence and Chris Wideman didn’t make the trip. We’ll find out what Boucher has in mind with the forwards later this morning.
The line up will look something like this.
Dzingel-Duchene-Boedker
Tkachuk-Smith-Stone
Forementon-Tierney-Ryan
McCormick/Pyatt-Chlapik/White-Paajarvi
Chabot-Ceci
Harpur-Borowiecki
Lajoie-Jaros
Wolanin
Mike Condon starts in goal. Puck drop is scheduled for…8:30 PM?! The game is available on TSN5 and is also available to those with access to the world wide web.
***
As expected, Zack Smith cleared waivers yesterday. What happens next remains unclear. While Guy Boucher says the plan is to insert Smith back to his regular spot with Mark Stone and Brady Tkachuk, it doesn’t mean he’ll be there for long. A trade is still a possibility as is a demotion to Belleville, although it seems unlikely (err unthinkable) that the Senators would pay him that kind of money to play in the American Hockey League.
Smith’s agent was on TSN 1200 yesterday and really didn’t seem to take issue with Smith being placed on waivers. According to Allain Roy, Pierre Dorion handled things the right way, speaking directly to the player and agent before making the move. A heads up to the rest of the locker room probably would have been a good idea too. What remains a little fuzzy is exactly what the Senators were hoping for by making this move and just as importantly, the motivation behind it. In that area, Dorion probably needs to make some sort of public comment to explain what’s going on. For now, Zack Smith remains with the Ottawa Senators.
