The Ottawa Senators probably deserved better on Thursday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
They controlled the play for long stretches of that game and really just ended up on the wrong end of the goaltending battle. And even with that, they still had a great chance to tie it late. An effort like that one is going to be good enough to win on most nights. Which is good, because the Sens are now in a spot where they uh, need to win on most nights.
The Ottawa Senators look to get back on track as they visit the Detroit Red Wings.
Tonight’s game kicks off a fairly daunting stretch for the Senators as they’ll be a lot busier than they have been and will play a lot of tough road games like tonight.
We’ll find out what this team is really made of in December.
Unfortunately they’ll have to do it without Thomas Chabot. As we learned late last week, Chabot is going to miss the next four weeks with his latest injury and while he won’t require surgery, it’s another significant setback for one of the team’s most important players. The team still isn’t saying much about the nature of his injury but I’ve heard it has something to do with his shin. That certainly sounds better than anything to do with the knees.
One change to the Ottawa lineup tonight as the recently recalled Jiri Smejkal makes his NHL debut. The 27-year old Smejkal has played in 17 games with the Belleville Senators, scoring three times and racking up 9 points. He’ll start on the fourth line with Rourke Chartier and Parker Kelly.
Here’s how DJ Smith had his team lined up at the morning skate.
Tkachuk-Norris-Giroux
Tarasenko-Stützle-Batherson
Kubalik-Greig-Joseph
Smejkal-Chartier-Kelly
Sanderson-Bernard Docker
Chychrun-Zub
Brannstrom-Hamonic
Joonas Korpisalo gets the start in goal for the Senators.
Puck drops at 7:08 PM in Detroit. The game is available on CityTV right after Dharma and Greg and TSN1200 has the radio broadcast, as has been the case for every single Senators game in the last decade. If illegal internet streaming is more your thing, the comment section usually has some options a little closer to game time.
And now, a table of sorts.
| HEAD2HEAD |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 10-11-0 (20 pts) | 14-7-4 (32 pts) |
| Goals For | 3.43 (8th) | 3.84 (2nd) |
| Goals Against | 3.29 (18th) | 3.08 (14th) |
| Power Play | 17.2% (23rd) | 23.1% (10th) |
| Penalty Kill | 73.9% (28th) | 78.5% (18th) |
| Shots For | 33.0 (5th) | 30.1 (21st) |
| Shots Against | 30.1 (15th) | 30.8 (19th) |
| Leading Scorers | Stutzle-25 pts Giroux-20 pts Tkachuk-19 pts Batherson-18 pts Tarasenko-17 pts |
Larkin-25 pts DeBrincat-24 pts Raymond-22 pts Compher-19 pts Ghostbear-19 pts |
| Starting Goalie | Joonas Korpisalo 5-6-0 3.41 GAA, .897 sv% |
Alex Lyon 4-1-0 1.61 GAA, .947 sv% |
Oh and in case you’re reading…Happy Birthday Dad!
