(UPDATE- 6:10 PM)- And another one.
(UPDATE 10:28 AM)- Well that was the most important one, anyway. Had he returned to school, there would have been serious cause for concern. This morning, the Senators announced that defenceman Jacob Bernard-Docker has signed a three-year entry-level contract. Once he completes the required 7-day quarantine, Bernard-Docker will report to Ottawa.
Game Day.
The Day of a Game. There is a hockey game today. Later today, the Ottawa Senators will play a hockey game. During this particular 24-hour segment in time, the local squad will compete in a match of ice hockey.
Game Day.
According to the calendar, it has only been a week since the last Sens game but it feels like an eternity. The accidental mid-season hiatus gave us plenty of time to reflect on more important things. To take up other hobbies, to reconnect with our families and to consider the meaning of life.
Actually- it gave us seven days to freak out over the status of our prospects at UND.
But finally, the Ottawa Senators are BACK. They’ll host the Montreal Canadiens at the Canadian Tire Centre later tonight.
It’s GAME DAY!
DJ Smith has had his team on the ice for practice a few times during the break. The goaltending situation still seems a bit murky but as of yesterday, Matt Murray was a regular participant in practice so he’s getting close. Still not cleared to play though.
One other lineup note that seemed to get mostly ignored yesterday is the fact that Tim Stützle was injured during practice. And while this probably seems like a half-assed April Fool’s Joke (remember when Ottawa signed Sloof Lirpa?!), it’s not. There really wasn’t any talk about it on Twitter yesterday but That’s Hockey had a segment on the incident during last night’s show. Seemed like a lower body injury of some kind.
The good news is there was no talk about it post-pratice so we’ll assume it’s a non-issue for now.
Lots of other comings and goings in the last week. Christian Wolanin is gone to Hollywood, Mike Amadio is here but in quarantine, Arty Party was on and cleared waivers and Erik Brannstrom snuck back in when nobody was looking.
Game Day (!!!) skate goes at 10:30 AM so we’ll confirm the lineup then.
Tkachuk-Norris-Dadonov
Stützle-Tierney-Batherson
Paul-White-C. Brown
Formenton-Bishop-Dzingel
Chabot-Zaitsev
Reilly-Zub
Coburn-J. Brown or Brannstrom-Gudbranson
Matt Murray was activated from the IR this morning but it sounds like Filip Gustavsson is in the starter’s end at the morning skate.
Puck drop is scheduled for 7:08 PM. The game is available on TSN2, TSN5, RDS, TSN1200 and will be streamed by kind internet pirates across the globe.
Speaking of the UND guys, still no news. Last night, a kind elderly gentleman suggested that both Shane Pinto and Jake Sanderson had made the decision to return to the school. This has not been confirmed by the players involved or by either organization but that guy I don’t know has never lied to me before so I don’t know what to believe.
And so we wait.
Here’s a table to help pass the time.
| HEAD2HEAD |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 15-8-9 (39 pts) | 12-20-4 (28 pts) |
| Goals For | 3.22 (9th) | 2.56 (T-24th) |
| Goals Against | 2.63 (11th) | 3.72 (31st) |
| Power Play | 22.7% (T-12th) | 13.7% (27th) |
| Penalty Kill | 77.1% (21st) | 76.4% (22nd) |
| Shots For | 33.1 (3rd) | 31.6 (6th) |
| Shots Against | 28.5 (9th) | 32.2 (29th) |
| Leading Scorers | Tomas Plekanec- 6 pts Valerie Bure- 5 pts Marcel Hossa- 3 pts Sergei Samsonov- 2 pts That fan that snuck into Habs practice- 1 pt |
Tkachuk- 22 pts Batherson- 21 pts Chabot- 21 pts Stutzle- 19 pts Norris- 18 pts |
| Starting Goalie | Jake Allen 4-3-4 2.34 GAA, .920 sv% |
Filip Gustavsson 2-0-1 0.86 GAA, .973 sv% |
