Game Day- Senators, Rangers at Madison Square Garden

SensChirp December 6, 2015 510
Game Day- Senators, Rangers at Madison Square Garden

On Saturday night, the Ottawa Senators battled back for one of their most exciting wins of the season over the New York Islanders.

They’ll look to build on that third period and overtime performance when they take on the other New York team tonight at Madison Square Garden.  The Sens will play their next four games on the road including stops in New York, Florida, Tampa Bay and Montreal.

The New York Rangers have been near the top of the Eastern Conference for most of the season.  Their underlying numbers haven’t been great (they get outshot often) but their 17-7-3 record and +19 goal differential both sit 3rd in the conference. With Henrik Lundqvist between the pipes, they have a chance to win on most nights.

In what is best described as a shocking development, Dave Cameron announced this afternoon that Kyle Turris is a game time decision.  When I first saw the replay and then watched Turris get carried off the ice I legitimately thought it might be something that put the rest of his season in jeopardy. The replay looked that bad.  So to hear that he’s not even ruled out of the line up 24 hours later is nothing short of remarkable.

Would not be at all surprised to see the Senators hold Turris out of the line up this evening but it really sounds like he will miss one game at the most.

If Turris can’t play, the Senators will again go with seven defenceman.  Otherwise, it will be the same line up tonight in New York.  If Turris can’t play, it’s anybody’s guess what Cameron does with the forward combinations.  Lazar could move back to centre and move up the line up. Pageau could get a look on that top line or maybe Zibanejad moves up and Pageau centres line two. We shall see.  Let’s just assume Turris plays for now.

Hoffman-Turris-Ryan
Prince-Zibanejad-Stone
Lazar-Pageau-Chiasson
Dziruzynski-Smith-Neil

Methot-Karlsson
Cowen-Ceci
Borowiecki-Wideman

Craig Anderson makes yet another start in the Ottawa goal.  Starting the same guy in back to back games is never ideal but with Andrew Hammond still not ready to return, the Senators don’t really have much choice.

Puck drops at 7:00 PM.

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On this day, 25 years ago, the National Hockey League conditionally granted a franchise to the city of Ottawa. And as a result, there’s some great content from the Senators Twitter account and website to mark this important day.

These two videos are a must watch for Sens fans.