The Ottawa Senators play tomorrow today.
I SAID…THE OTTAWA SENATORS PLAY TOMORROW TODAY.
Even as I sit here typing the words, it’s a little bit hard to believe. After what was essentially the off-season from hell, it’s time to get back to watching hockey. You remember hockey don’t you? A fast-paced sport that uniquely combines skill, strength and speed with…ice. And sticks. And the players have sharp metal blades affixed to their boots. Hockey. It’s BACK.
Okay, maybe not all the way back but a big step in the right direction.
The Annual Rookie Tournament kicks off tomorrow tonight in Laval, Quebec and our dear Senators are going head to head against a bunch of players from two other organizations I’ve never even heard of. The three-team round robin, which will certainly be won by Ottawa, starts on Friday night tonight and wraps up on Sunday afternoon.
Up first, a walk in the park against the lowly rookies from the Montreal Canadiens.
Troy Mann, who will be behind the bench in Belleville this season, is calling the shots this weekend. He had his team on the ice for quick tune up earlier today yesterday at the SensPlex in beautiful Kanata, Ontario. While this is certainly way too early to be reading into line combinations, we’ll do it anyway because boy have I missed talking about line combinations.
It looks like the top two lines could be stacked with some of the best prospects in the organization. Filip Chlapik, who has a serious chance at making the team out of Camp this year, was centring a line with first round pick Brady Tkachuk on the left side and Colin White on the right. Meanwhile Logan Brown found himself between Alex Formenton and Drake Batherson.
Sure it’s game one of the rookie tournament but those two lines should be fun to watch.
Meanwhile on the blueline, Christian Wolanin was paired with Christian Jaros. Both those guys have a serious chance at playing NHL games this year. Filip Gustavsson gets the start in goal and is expected to play the entire game.
Tomorrow’s Tonight’s game against the Canadiens starts at 7:00 PM. They’ll play their second game against those blue and white pricks at 3:00 PM on Saturday.
You can see the full roster for this weekend here.
Hockey! Tomorrow! Tonight!
The game is available on RDS-I and will be streamed live on RDS.ca.
