With their first win of the season in the bank, the Ottawa Senators now turn their attention to Roberto Luongo and the rest of Florida Panthers.
After picking up the two points in Tampa Bay, the Senators will be looking for a strong finish to this three game road trip to start the season. After tonight, Ottawa returns to the Canadian Tire Centre for their home opener against the Colorado Avalanche. After tonight, Ottawa will play four straight within the friendly confines of the CTC.
Florida has dropped the first two games of their season and have sort of stumbled out of the blocks. General Manager Dale Tallon made big changes this off season with the goal of finally getting this team back to the post season. And while the Eastern Conference is pretty wide open, it’s hard to tell if this Panthers team has what it takes. Having Luongo for a full season is obviously a huge boost and players like Willie Mitchell, Dave Bolland and Jussi Jokinen add some much needed experience, this is still a pretty young team. Their blueline is especially young where after Mitchell and Brian Campbell, the oldest guy is 24 years old.
Still, this Florida team is not to be taken lightly. After an embarrassing loss to the Devils in their home opener, they’ll be keen to find their first win of the season.
With so many guys still on the roster, MacLean wants to make sure everyone gets a chance to play games early in the season. That means Greening, Condra and Wiercioch in-Hoffman, Lazar and Cowen out. Here’s how the Senators are expected to line up for this one.
MacArthur-Turris-Stone
Ryan-Zibanejad-Chiasson
Michalek-Legwand-Neil
Greening-Smith-Condra
Phillips-Karlsson
Wiercioch-Ceci
Borowiecki-Gryba
Looks like Craig Anderson gets the start for Ottawa.
Puck drop is scheduled for just after 7:30 PM with the game available on TSN5. If you’re in the Florida area, I hear there are thousands and thousands of tickets available for this one.
