After a dramatic win over the Los Angeles Kings on Friday night, the Senators will look for another strong home ice performance when they welcome Eric Staal and the Minnesota Wild to town for a rare Sunday evening tilt.
The Minnesota Wild have got off to a decent start under new Head Coach Booce Boodreau.
They have a 7-5-1 record through their first 13 games and sport the second best goal differential in the Western Conference at +12. They have the league’s 8th best offence, scoring three goals a game and have the second best goals against behind only the Montreal Canadiens. Might be a little luck and quality goaltending involved though because they’re 29th in shots per game (28.0) and 20th in shots against (31.0).
They also played and lost last night in Philadelphia. Don’t be surprised if Darcy Kuempfer gets his third start of the season tonight.
On Ottawa’s side of things, obviously it would be nice to get the offence going a little bit. Solid goaltending and strong defensive play has been helping them win some games in the first part of the season but eventually they need to score some goals.
Chris Wideman participated in practice yesterday but is not expected to play. The Smith-Pageau-Stone line that was so good down the stretch last season connected a couple times late against the Kings on Friday. They’ll start together again tonight.
Here’s how the Senators are expected to line up against the Wild.
Hoffman-Brassard-Ryan
Dzingel-Turris-Pyatt
Smith-Pageau-Stone
Puempel-Kelly-Neil
Methot-Karlsson
Phaneuf-Ceci
Claesson-Borowiecki
Craig Anderson is expected to get the start in the Ottawa goal.
Puck drop is scheduled for just after 5:00 PM.
