The Senators will play the first of only 2 home pre-season games this afternoon when they host the Montreal Canadiens, and they will be putting forth a pretty decent roster for the Canadian Tire Centre crowd.

Andrew Hammond will start and is scheduled to play the entire game, as Craig Anderson's absence continues. Was he cutting chicken and we don't know about it?

The roster for the game had 9 defensemen listed, so obviously 3 will be sitting but it will be the first appearance for Erik Karlsson and he should be joined by fellow top-4s Marc Methot, Cody Ceci and Dion Phaneuf. I would anticipate Thomas Chabot getting another look and Matt Bartkowski as well, but you could also see any of Mike Kostka, Freddie Claesson and Chris Wideman as well.

Up front, there were only 12 names so Phil Varone and Matt Puempel will continue to get extensive looks as will Tom Pyatt, Max McCormick and Ryan Dzingel. They will join sure things Kyle Turris, Bobby Ryan, Mike Hoffman, Derick Brassard, Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Chris Kelly and Chris Neil.

On the good news front, Mark Stone practiced with the team yesterday and could be ready to return as early as Tuesday's game in Saskatoon.

The Senators will head west for a couple of exhibition games on Monday and Tuesday, so you can bet they will be making roster decisions pretty soon. Although they are 11 days away from the season opener, there final exhibition game takes place next Friday and you think they want to have the opening night roster in place as soon as possible so Guy Boucher can fine-tune his system and the players' responsibilities within.

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