The Senators were back on the ice for practice this morning on the heels of an impressive four game win streak.
While there are defensive issues (shot against, especially) for this team to address, it’s a strong start for a team written off by many of the experts before the season started. Racking up points early on is important and especially when you can do it against teams from your conference.
Sort of a light schedule for the Senators this week as they get a couple extra days off in the middle of this four game home stand. They’ll catch a break on Wednesday as they face another team in the second game of a back to back in the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Leafs visit the Islanders on Tuesday night. Ottawa then closes out the home stand on Saturday against the Devils and then play a back to back of their own in Chicago on Sunday night.
Based on the combinations at this morning’s practice, it looks like Erik Condra, Colin Greening and Jared Cowen will be the healthy scratches against Toronto. Of course, that could change before Wednesday night.
MacLean has another interesting goaltending decision to make on Wednesday night. Lehner was rock solid against Columbus on Saturday and has looked extremely good in his two starts. Each guy will get a start on the weekend and I’m sort of thinking they’ll go Anderson vs. TOR and NJD and then go back to Lehner on Sunday in Chicago. We’ll see what MacLean has in mind.
-Still no sign of Marc Methot at Senators’ practice. The good news is Methot was back on the ice this morning for what MacLean called a “public skate”. It’s the first time Methot has skated in almost a month. Nice to finally Methot take a step in the right direction because Ottawa’s blueline could certainly use him. Chris Phillips has done an admirable job filling in beside Erik Karlsson but he’s obviously playing too many minutes right now. Still no timelines for Methot’s return. It’s believed that contract talks have resumed although still no progress to report on that front.
-If there’s a silver lining to the Methot injury, it’s the fact that it allows the Senators a little more time to delay a difficult roster decision. Right now the team is carrying 7 defenceman and 14 forwards so once Methot comes back, something is gonna have to give. After that performance by Hoffman on Saturday night, he’s clearly ahead of Colin Greening on the depth chart. Ottawa has tried to move Greening in the past and will certainly be making phone calls on that front over the next few days. I just don’t know if anyone will bite.
