The rivalry between the Ottawa Senators and Minnesota Wild has been building over the years.
In the long and storied history of the National Hockey League, the Senators and Wild have clashed on 24 memorable occasions. Every time these two teams get together, sparks fly.
Who could forget that first game between Ottawa and Minnesota? Wow, what a night. Then there was that time Minnesota’s equipment caught fire. Also, Clarke MacArthur did this once.
And earlier this season, the two teams battled in front of an electric crowd at the CTC on a Thanksgiving Monday afternoon. The tension between the two teams was palpable, with the Wild getting the better of the Senators that day.
The Minnesota Wild ruined Canadian Thanksgiving. Now the Senators will return the favour.
Seriously though, I sort of forgot the Minnesota Wild existed up until about 20 minutes ago.
Here’s the latest- Eric Staal is their leading scorer, Ryan Suter and Zach Parise still have contracts that stretch the horizontal limits of the Cap Friendly website and Wes Walz is apparently nowhere to be found. Okay, now you’re all caught up on what the Wild have been up to.
Could be some changes to the Ottawa line up ahead of this one. Max Veronneau was returned to Belleville yesterday which likely means one of the injured forwards (Anisimov and Namestnikov) is ready to return. Tyler Ennis missed yesterday’s practice but is expected to play today.
Here’s how they lined up at yesterday’s practice.
Paul-Pageau-White
Tkachuk-L. Brown-Duclair
Namestnikov-Anisimov-C. Brown
Chlapik -Tierney-Ennis
Chabot-Hainsey
Borowiecki-Zaitsev
Brannstrom-DeMelo
Anders Nilsson gets the start in goal for Ottawa.
Puck drop is scheduled for just after 4:00 PM which basically means you can all head home from work at 2:00 PM. The Sens and Wild are playing, I’m sure your boss will understand.
The game is on TSN5 and on RDS2,
and if you’re feeling kinda brave you CAN STREAM IT TOO.
The only table I’ll be gathered around this American Thanksgiving is the HEAD2HEAD table. Join me, won’t you?
| HEAD2HEAD |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 11-13-1 (23 pts) | 10-11-4 (24 pts) |
| Goals For | 2.64 (28th) | 2.76 (22nd) |
| Goals Against | 2.92 (11th) | 3.28 (23rd) |
| Power Play | 9.5% (31st) | 18.6% (17th) |
| Penalty Kill | 83.5% (11th) | 81.3% (T-16th) |
| Shots For | 29.8 (23rd) | 29.2 (27th) |
| Shots Against | 32.8 (26th) | 31.1 (12th) |
| Leading Scorers | Pageau- 19 pts Duclair- 15 pts Chabot- 15 pts |
Staal- 17 pts Zucker- 16 pts Suter- 16 pts |
| Starting Goalie | Anders Nilsson 7-5-1 2.58 GAA, .927 sv% |
Alex Stalock 5-3-2 2.80 GAA, .907 sv% |
