After a successful three game road trip through Dallas, Colorado and Arizona, the Ottawa Senators finally return home to the Canadian Tire Centre.
The Sens will play their next three games at home, beginning with a match up against the Philadelphia Flyers tonight at the CTC. The Chicago Blackhawks are in town on Thursday while the New York Islanders stop by on Saturday.
Ottawa has been a tad inconsistent on home ice so far this season but will be looking to bank some points as they kick off what should be a grueling month of December.
Plenty of strong opponents and while they only have two back to back situations, they’ll be quite busy with pretty much a game every other day. They’ll play seven teams from their own division including two each against Florida, Tampa Bay and Boston. With the Atlantic Division as tight as it is right now, this month of December could go a long way towards deciding where the Senators sit in April.
Which is why it’s so important that they get off to a good start against the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Senators and Flyers last met just ten days ago. Ottawa won 4-0 that night and controlled the game most of the way. This Flyers team has some talent on the roster with the likes of Claude Giroux, Jakub Voracek and Wayne Simmonds but it has been a predictably rough start to the season for the team as a whole.
The Flyers are 9-10-5 including a -20 goal differential. We talked about this the last time Philly came to town but no team in the league scores less than the Flyers, averaging just 1.83 goals per game.
Patrick Wiercioch is healthy and was placed back on the active roster over the weekend but is expected to sit this one out. Same line combinations up front too which means another game as a healthy scratch for Colin Greening. Here’s how Dave Cameron has his team lined up at the morning skate.
Hoffman-Turris-Ryan
Lazar-Zibanejad-Stone
Michalek-Pageau-Chiasson
Prince-Smith-Neil
Methot-Karlsson
Cowen-Ceci
Borowiecki-Wideman
Craig Anderson makes another start in the Ottawa goal. Get used to reading that as according to Dave Cameron, he has no plans to rest Anderson any time soon. Puck drop is scheduled for just after 7:30 PM.
-A reminder that this month’s edition of Faces Magazine is now available online (and in locations around the city) and includes an article I wrote on one of Bryan Murray’s finest moves- the Kyle Turris trade. I gotta tell ya, it takes skill to write an article a month ahead of time and have it still be somewhat relevant when it ends up getting published. Revisiting trades from 4 years ago is a safe play. You can find the online version of the article here.
