Okay, now it’s time for the real thing.
It feels like just the other day. A valiant effort against the eventual Stanley Cup Champions ended on home ice. With their heads hung low in disappointment, 25 best friends left the ice that night knowing that there were better days ahead.
Just a few months later, better days have arrived. And the remaining 24 best friends are ready to get to work.
The Ottawa Senators visit the Maple Leafs in their regular season opener in Toronto.
The start of a new season brings all sorts of hope and possibility. Despite a somewhat tumultuous off-season, this year’s team carries with it equal amounts of both – hope and possibility. Although peppered in there is a little bit of mystery too. What’s his name was a big part of this team’s identity the last few seasons and while he had a way of disappearing or distracting at the worst possible time, and his podcast sucked, the early part of the year is going to be about redefining an identity.
The good news is they have a great place to start from. Under Travis Green, the Senators have become one of the most well-structured, defensively-sound teams in the game. They are a dork’s dream, actually. Their underlying numbers last season bordered on spectacular and with even average goaltending, this is a division-winning kind of team.
So while the so-called experts see a big personality walk out the door and expect regression from this group, there’s a quiet confidence in the fan base. There are expectations too. And real reason to believe this team can actually get better free of a big distraction. We all know it. Nobody else does though. And that’s just perfect.
We’ll find out who’s right starting tonight in the Big Smoke.
Morning skate will give some clues on tonight’s lineup but it seems like they’re mostly healthy. Jake Sanderson’s status has been unclear all week but as of yesterday, it seems like he’ll play. Off-season acquisition Andre Burakovsky will now. But here’s how they are expected to look…
Foegele-Stützle-Batherson
Eklund-Cozens-Zetterlund
Amadio-Pinto-Giroux
Cousins-Halliday-Hodgson/Greig
Sanderson-Matinpalo
Chabot-Spence
Kleven-Yakemchuk
Linus Ullmark gets the start in the Ottawa goal.
Puck drop is set for 7:08 PM. The game is available on Sportsnet, who despite my best efforts is still broadcasting hockey games. TSN1200 has a radio call. Or if you’re feeling especially adventurous, you can hop in the car with me and we’ll drive down there and watch this thing in real life.
SensChirp, reporting for duty for a 19th straight season. 20th maybe? Who knows. Two friggin decades of anonymous hockey blogging.
Sens hockey. Tonight? Tonight.
Go. Sens. Go.
