A quick glance at the North East division standing this morning and you might think you were holding the page upside down or perhaps unknowingly standing on your head.
At the top of the standings you have the Toronto Maple Leafs, followed closely by the Ottawa Senators while at the bottom of the division sit the defending Champs, the Boston Bruins.
The Bruins come into the match up with the Sens with a disappointing 3-7-0 record, which included a 2-5-0 record at TD Garden, the site for tonight’s Sens/Bruins match up.
The Stanley Cup Hangover is in full effect in Beantown as the lowly Bruins have struggled to find their game in the early going. You know they are going to come out hungry tonight and eager to prove that an ugly October is behind them as the calendar flips to November. The Bruins come in to tonight having lost three straight and need to get this thing turned around in a hurry. If they get down early, the hometown faithful could start to turn on them a little bit.
Meanwhile, the Ottawa Senators come into this one as hot as any team in the NHL. The Sens have reeled off six straight wins including an impressive win over the rival Maple Leafs on Sunday night. Tonight is just another chance for these Pesky Sens to show that they are not a team to be taken lightly.
It will not be easy for the visitors though as they will again play without their Captain, Daniel Alfredsson. Alfie did not make the trip to Boston and is expected to miss at least a week after a blatant headshot delivered by Wojtek Wolski on Saturday afternoon. A hit that the league has mystifyingly declared a legal check.
With Alfie out, Paul MacLean will be forced to shuffle up the lines a little bit and is expected to sport a similar look the one that beat the Leafs on Sunday although I would not be surprised to see Konopka draw back in.
Greening-Spezza-Michalek
Foligno-Da Costa-Butler
Condra-Smith-Neil
Filatov-Winchester-Konopka
Rundblad-Phillips
Kuba-Karlsson
Cowen-Gonchar
Brian Lee is expected to be a scratch once again.
