December begins for the Ottawa Senators with some big holes in the lineup to fill in all areas.

Starting with the goaltending, where Craig Anderson has left the team as expected to spend some time with his wife. Mike Condon will assume the #1 role in his absence, but he hasn't started since the debacle at home against Nashville two weeks ago. He allowed five goals in that game, but he was hung out to dry by his teammates who forgot there was a game that night.

On the blue line, Marc Methot is unlikely to play, meaning the Senators' biggest weakness is exposed - the lack of depth on the blue line. Freddie Claesson will take Methot's spot alongside Erik Karlsson, but that instantly reduces the effectiveness of what should be the top pairing. The option is to move Dion Phaneuf up with Karlsson, and that will probably happen quite a bit tonight, but then you risk exposing a Cody Ceci - Claesson pairing.

Methot is more day to day, but also has a history of back problems so that is a bit discouraging. Someone who is not day to day is Bobby Ryan, who tried to play through yet another hand injury but this time he has pulled the plug. Not that he was playing like a top 6 forward (8 points in 21 games) but his presence has to be respected by opposing players.

Curtis Lazar will take Ryan's spot alongside Kyle Turris and Ryan Dzingel, with Max McCormick slotting in on the fourth line.

The Philadelphia Flyers provide the competition, coming in on a two game winning streak and closing in on the Wild Card spot. They beat the Bruins 3-2 in a shootout on Tuesday, with Steve Mason making 45 saves. The Flyers opened up a 2-0 lead in the first period of that one, before coughing up two third period goals to allow the Bruins to nab a point as well.

These teams played each other just over two weeks ago, with Turris scoring one of his many clutch goals with less than two minutes left to force extra time, and Karlsson scored the shootout winner in the shootout.

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