We’re almost there.
With the start of a new NHL season now just six sleeps away, the waiting game is just about complete.
The Ottawa Senators will play their final preseason game tomorrow night against the Buffalo Sabres and based on the comments Guy Boucher has made to this point, they’ll be pretty close to their full line up by that point.
Yesterday afternoon, the Senators demoted eight more players, leaving them with a total of 25 guys left in game. 15 forwards, 8 defenceman and two goalies.
On the blueline, the organization has made it clear that the eight guys remaining- Karlsson, Methot, Phaneuf, Ceci, Wideman, Borowiecki, Chabot and Claesson- will be around when the season starts next week. That means 19 year old Thomas Chabot will be on the NHL roster to start the season, although whether or not he’s one of the six or seven guys to dress on opening night remains to be seen.
Up front, Boucher said the plan is to carry 12 forwards to start the year. That’s 12 plus the two injured guys in Clarke MacArthur and Curtis Lazar.
What that means is sometime in the next few days, the Senators are likely to cut one more forward. It’s between Matt Puempel, Ryan Dzingel and Phil Varone. Both Dzingel and Varone got time on the second power play unit in practice today so it certainly seems like Puempel could be the odd man out when the dust settles. He’ll need to clear waivers if they do decide to send him down but that really shouldn’t be an issue this time of year.
Speaking of the power play, the Senators worked on it at practice this morning and ran a top unit of Stone, Brassard, Ryan, Hoffman and Karlsson. On paper, that’s as dangerous a five man unit as you’ll find anywhere in the NHL. The second unit wasn’t nearly as impressive- Turris, Smith, Varone/Dzingel, Phaneuf, Wideman/Ceci.
Here’s how Boucher lined his team up at this morning’s practice
Hoffman-Turris-Stone
Dzingel-Brassard-Ryan
Smith-Pageau-Pyatt
Puempel/Varone-Kelly-Neil
Methot-Karlsson
Phaneuf-Ceci
Claesson-Wideman
Borowiecki-Chabot
Based on those defence pairings and the fact that Wideman was working in on the second power play unit, it certainly seems like Claesson and Wideman could be an option to start the season. Or at least for the final preseason game tomorrow night. That would leave it between Chabot and Borowiecki to see who dresses as the 7th.
We’ll know for sure soon enough.
