That first game was a bit of a trap.
Taking on one of the league’s top teams in their Home Opener while playing short a skater and still missing two key centres wasn’t exactly a recipe for success. That’s why I made a call to the NHL Head Office and had it officially striken (struck? strucked?) from the record. Anyway, it never happened.
The real season starts today.
The Ottawa Senators host the Philadelphia Flyers. It’s the Home Opener at the Canadian Tire Centre on Saturday afternoon in beautiful Kanata, Ontario.
With the early puck drop, the Sens obviously won’t skate ahead of this one. That means any lineup surprises will have to wait until pretty close to game time.
Based on yesterday’s alignment, it seems like Zack MacEwen will draw in on the fourth line and Josh Norris will continue to do whatever it is he’s doing. Shane Pinto returned home after a brief stop in Ottawa earlier this week so safe to assume he won’t be suiting up in the next few hours.
Here’s how the Senators are expected to look for this one. We’ll confirm this later this morning when DJ Smith meets with the media around 10:15 AM.
Tkachuk-Stützle-Giroux
Joseph-Greig-Tarasenko
Kubalik-Chartier-Batherson
Kelly-Kastelic-MacEwen
Chychrun-Chabot
Sanderson-Zub
Brannstrom-Hamonic
We’ll also find out a starting goalie later this morning.
Puck drop is scheduled for 1:08 PM at the Canadian Tire Centre. For those in attendance, the on-ice pregame festivities are expected to start around 12:45 PM. The rink opens at 11:00 AM and the beer tent, which features $5 beers, opens at 10:30 AM. This one could get messy.
The broadcast is available on TSN5 and TSN1200 but as we learned last year, to really experience a home opener, you need to head down to the CTC and see it in person.
Do it.
Lost track of the stats through the first game of the season and now you need to know how these teams match up? Let the HEAD2HEAD table do the heavy lifting.
| HEAD2HEAD |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 1-0-0 (2 pts) | 0-1-0 (0 pts) |
| Goals For | 4.00 (T-9th) | 3.00 (T-12th) |
| Goals Against | 2.00 (T-8th) | 5.00 (T-24th) |
| Power Play | 0.0% (T-16th) | 0.0% (T-16th) |
| Penalty Kill | 0.0% (T-16th) | 83.3% (T-1st) |
| Shots For | 37.0 (T-5th) | 30.0 (T-19th) |
| Shots Against | 33.0 (18th) | 42.0 (T-29th) |
| Leading Scorers | Konecny – 2 pts Laughton – 2 pts Atkinson – 1 pt Couturier – 1 pt Farabee – 1 pts |
Joseph – 2 pts Kelly – 2 pts Stutzle – 1 pt Zub – 1 pt |
| Starting Goalie | TBD | TBD |
