There will come a time when the prospect of the Ottawa Senators playing a road game doesn’t complete terrify me.
But that time is not yet upon us. The Sens play their next three games away from the friendly confines of the Canadian Tire Centre. Tonight they are in Nashville before a back to back in Detroit and Montreal later this week.
Up first- the Nashville Predators. A team that leads the Central Division and has been fairly dominant on home ice, going 11-5-0 so far this year. Eeep.
The good news is the Senators may actually be running into a team that is just as injury-riddled as they are. We’ll confirm later this morning but right now it looks like the Preds will be without PK Subban, Kyle Turris, Filip “Don’t Call me Peter” Forsberg and Viktor “Don’t call me Magnus” Arvidsson. Three top six forwards and a top pairing defenceman.
It’s a similar story for the Senators as they’ll be without Matt Duchene, Bobby Ryan, Mark Borowiecki and Dylan DeMelo. Christian Jaros may miss the game too.
Paul Carey and Stefan Elliott were both recalled from the BSens and will join the Senators in Nashville. While it’s not clear if either guy actually gets into the line up, it does give Guy Boucher a couple more options.
Carey has appeared in five entirely uneventful games with the Senators this season but he has been one the team’s most consistent forwards down in Belleville. He has 19 points through 20 games and by all accounts, has looked pretty good lately.
Here’s Paul Carey’s goal moments ago that put #LVPhantoms in a 2-0 deficit in Belleville. pic.twitter.com/iMBa9qMh6m
— Tony Androckitis (@TonyAndrock) December 2, 2018
While fans are clamoring for the recall of one of the team’s top prospects, like a Logan Brown or a more festive option like Rudolfs Balcers, the team is again going with a more veteran player.
It’s clear that unless there is a specific and appropriate opening in the line up, the organization would rather have those top guys playing big minutes in the American Hockey League. Makes sense.
Elliott, a puck-moving defenceman, gets a recall after just three games with the BSens. It helps that he has 84 games of NHL experience under his belt though. The man is also an OLYMPIAN, by the way.
While it would be nice to see Christian Wolanin get another look at some point soon, there’s no guarantee that this particular recall even gets into a game. And it certainly doesn’t help Wolanin to be sitting in the press box at this stage of the season.
Elliott will wear Igor Kravchuk’s #29 if he does play this week.
Here’s how the Senators are expected to line up for this one.
Tkachuk-White-Stone
Boedker-Tierney-Batherson
Dzingel-Smith-Paajarvi
McCormick-Paul-Pyatt
Chabot-Harpur
Lajoie-Ceci
Falk-Burgdoerfer
Craig Anderson will guard the net for the Senators. Puck drop is scheduled for just after 8:00 PM so pace yourselves when it comes to your game day drinking.
The game is available on TSN5 and RDS2. The game will also be streamed live via Carrie Underwood’s Instagram account.
Table time. Goals against under four and a penalty kill that isn’t in last place. Progress!
| HEAD2HEAD |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 13-14-4 (30 pts) | 19-10-1 (39 pts) |
| Goals For | 3.39 (8th) | 3.17 (12th) |
| Goals Against | 3.94 (31st) | 2.53 (T-1st) |
| Power Play | 22.4% (11th) | 15.4% (26th) |
| Penalty Kill | 72.2% (30th) | 81.1% (11th) |
| Shots For | 29.6 (25th) | 32.1 (12th) |
| Shots Against | 38.3 (31st) | 28.5 (4th) |
| Leading Scorers | Stone- 35 pts Chabot- 34 pts Duchene- 33 pts |
Johansen- 25 pts Forsberg- 22 pts Josi- 21 pts |
| Starting Goalie | Craig Anderson 12-11-3 3.58 GAA, .906 sv% |
Pekka Rinne 12-5-1 1.96 GAA, .930 sv% |
