Heading into the third period against the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday night, the Ottawa Senators were well positioned for a perfect three game home stand.
But a couple unfortunate bounces and it suddenly went from a perfect three games to a respectable 2-1-0 record. Now they’ll look for a bit of a bounce back performance as they hit the road for a tough back to back.
Up first- PK Subban and the Nashville Predators.
Despite not coming away with the win the other night against the Sabres, players and coaches seem mostly pleased with their performance. They manufactured a number of high-quality scoring chances but just couldn’t find a way to get pucks past Robin Lehner. Goal scoring has been a bit of an issue for this team recently, as they’ve scored just four goals in their last three outings.
It won’t get any easier against a usually stingy Nashville Predators team.
The Preds have stumbled out of the blocks a little bit this season, going 3-5-3 in their first 11 games. And surprisingly, it’s been the defence that’s let them down. They sit 20th in the league in shots against at 31.4 a game and they’re giving up 3 goals against.
PK’s fault, obviously….Their penalty kill is ranked 27th in the league.
Guy Boucher met with the media yesterday and suggested that he’ll likely go with the same line up as Saturday against Buffalo. That means Ryan-Brassard-Stone will start together again on the top line. They looked dangerous on Saturday.
Here’s how the Sens are expected to line up for this one.
Ryan-Brassard-Stone
Hoffman-Turris-Pyatt
Smith-Pageau-Kelly
Puempel-Dzingel-Neil
Methot-Karlsson
Phaneuf-Ceci
Claesson-Borowiecki
Craig Anderson gets the start in the Ottawa goal. Puck drop is scheduled for just after 8:00 PM.
