For far too long, the Canadian Tire Centre has sat mostly empty.
Even as a consistently competitive Sens team turned in a stretch that featured some of their best hockey of the season, the building was quiet. Sure they snuck 500 people in there over the last couple weeks and yea the fake crowd noise levels have been up the roof but it just isn’t the same.
That changes starting tonight against the Boston Bruins.
The team has finally been cleared for 50% capacity beginning on Saturday. And then on March 1st, the Senators will officially have the green light for a return to full capacity. Of course that aligns perfectly with the start of a five-game/two-week road trip but you get the idea. Because what better way to bleat the winter blahs then with a trip to the CTC.
The Ottawa Senators host the Boston Bruins on Saturday night.
DJ Smith will meet with the media later this morning and lay out any potential lineup changes ahead of this one. Would assume they go with a similar look as the other night in Buffalo but we’ll find out later this morning.
Tkachuk-Paul-Brown
Formenton-Stützle-Gaudette
Kelly-Tierney-Sanford
Watson-Gambrell-Ennis
Mete-Zaitsev
Holden-Zub
Brannstrom-Brown
Anton Forsberg is the likely starter but with two games this weekend, we’ll have to wait and see how they split the starts.
Showtime is set for 7:08 PM. The game is on Sportsnet One which means my night is basically ruined. Dean and Gord have the call on TSN1200 and streams will be available closer to game time.
As we reach the end of today’s ramblings, I know many of you are left wondering- what else ya got for me, Chirp? Well I’m glad you asked. I’ve spent the last 14 minutes carefully crafting this table which conveniently lays out all the relevant statistics ahead of this evening’s clash. I call it the HEAD2HEAD table and it is amazing.
| HEAD2HEAD |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 27-14-4 (58 pts) | 18-25-4 (40 pts) |
| Goals For | 2.83 (21st) | 2.68 (24th) |
| Goals Against | 2.79 (T-12th) | 3.19 (23rd) |
| Power Play | 24.8% (T-7th) | 16.7% (25th) |
| Penalty Kill | 82.1% (11th) | 81.0% (13th) |
| Shots For | 35.0 (5th) | 29.9 (20th) |
| Shots Against | 29.3 (7th) | 33.7 (27th) |
| Leading Scorers | Marchand- 49 pts Pastrnak- 45 pts Bergeron- 35 pts Hall- 32 McAvoy- 28 pts |
Tkachuk- 36 pts Batherson- 34 pts Norris- 26 pts Brown- 24 pts Chabot- 24 pts |
| Starting Goalie | Jeremy Swayman 9-7-3 2.15 GAA, .923 sv% |
TBD |
