After a whirlwind couple days following the Sunday night blockbuster, the Ottawa Senators now try to shift the focus to the upcoming NHL Global Series.
Later this week, the Senators will play two games against the Colorado Avalanche at the Ericsson Globe Arena in Stockholm, Sweden. The first game goes Friday afternoon with game time set for 2:00 PM (plan those get-out-of-work-early excuses now, folks) while Saturday’s game starts at 1:00 PM.
While it’s easy to get distracted in the festivities surrounding an event like this, these are important games for the Senators. They currently sit 3rd in the Atlantic Division but their game has been inconsistent over the last couple weeks and their effort on Saturday afternoon against the Vegas Golden Knights left a lot to be desired.
And maybe that’s why Head Coach Guy Boucher put his team right to work shortly after their plane landed in Sweden earlier today. Here’s how the Coach lined up his players at today’s practice.
Dzingel-Brassard-Stone
Smith-Duchene-Hoffman
Burrows-Pageau-Pyatt
DiDomenico-Thompson-Rodewald/Paul
Oduya-Karlsson
Phaneuf-Ceci
Claesson-Wideman
This is the second straight day with Matt Duchene and Mike Hoffman on the same line.
Boucher talked a little bit about his thought process in putting those two together, emphasizing Duchene’s ability to create offence from below the goal line and potentially find Mike Hoffman for one-timers in open ice. To this point, Hoffman has played a lot with Pageau and Pyatt but it certainly sounds like they want to get Hoffman out there with offensive guys more often. Makes sense.
The team made a couple roster moves before departing, recalling Nick Paul and Marcus Hogberg from Belleville of the American Hockey League.
Hogberg will serve as a little bit of insurance between the pipes for the two games later this week. Hogberg, who has yet to appear in a game for Belleville this season, hails from Örebro which is about a two hour drive from Stockholm. While Nick Paul hasn’t exactly got off to a great start in the AHL (5 assists in 11 games), the Senators needed an extra forward on the trip and he was next in line.
Meanwhile, both Bobby Ryan and Mark Borowiecki stayed behind.
While there’s still no timeline for Bobby Ryan’s return, he was on the ice in Belleville earlier today and looked pretty comfortable handling the puck. Ryan’s injury occurred on October 21st and at the time, the team said he was expected to miss about a month. So a return shortly after the Senators return from Sweden seems like a possibility.
Borowiecki’s status is a little less clear. He’s dealing with what the team is calling a “personal health issue” and will be re-evaluated when the team return to Ottawa. He is also expected to skate with the Belleville Senators during the break.
The team will have a day off tomorrow and then get back on the ice for practice on Thursday.
It’s only Tuesday. This may be the longest week in the history.
-In Kyle Turris and Andrew Hammond, the Sens are losing two players at the centre of some of the most memorable moments in franchise history. Turris always had a knack for scoring big goals (those two against the Rangers being two of his best) and Hammond’s performance during that miracle run to the playoffs remains as one of the most delightfully strange and unexpected stretches in the history of the franchise. Both Turris and Hammond took to Twitter over the last couple days to thank the Senators organization. For those that may have missed it, Callum Fraser has an excellent piece over at Silver Seven Sens, talking about the role Turris had with the Capital City Condors. It’s a must read.
SensChirp Player of the Game Voting
| PLAYER | 1st (3 pts) | 2nd (2 pts) | 3rd (1 pt) | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
4 | 2 | 2 | 18 pts |
 |
1 | 2 | 3 | 10 pts |
 |
2 | 1 | 1 | 9 pts |
 |
2 | 0 | 1 | 7 pts |
 |
2 | 0 | 0 | 6 pts |
 |
1 | 1 | 1 | 6 pts |
 |
1 | 1 | 0 | 5 pts |
 |
1 | 0 | 0 | 3 pts |
