Set your alarms and take a pre-game nap because it will be a late one when the Senators visit the Vancouver Canucks. Thankfully the Senators don't play a ton of games outside the eastern time zone, because a mid-week 10PM start plays havoc with my (and I am sure a lot of other people's) internal clock.

Heading into the season, the Canucks were at the bottom of many prognosticators' lists, definitely in the Pacific Division, if not the Western Conference and even the entire NHL (that I saw on some predictions). Well after the first six games of the season, the Canucks are sitting with a 4-1-1 record and are just a point behind division leading Edmonton Oilers (no that isn't a typo or a throwback to the mid-80's, but that is a discussion for another day.

The Canucks have been a good mix of veteran (Daniel and Henrik Sedin along with newly acquired Loui Eriksson) and youth (Bo Horvat and Marcus Granlund) among their top scorers. They have also gotten stellar goaltending, as both Jacob Markstrom (4 games) and Ryan Miller (2 games) have sub-2.00 GAA and Save percentages north of .920.

A few days ago, I stated that I wasn't a big fan of having Mark Stone and Mike Hoffman on the same line. I just don't think they click, and other than one game they haven't. I also suggested at the same time that Guy Boucher might want to look at making 3 relatively dangerous offensive lines by spreading out the skill. Well, not that I had anything to do with it, but Boucher used lines in practice yesterday that almost exactly resembled what I though might be the way to go. Here is how they lined up in practice yesterday:

Pyatt - Turris - Hoffman
Dzingel - Brassard - Ryan
Smith - Pageau - Stone
Puempel - Kelly - Neil

The only difference between that alignment and what I suggested (at least in the top 9) was flipping Ryan Dzingel and Tom Pyatt. Boucher's reasoning was being on the road and spreading or balancing things mitigates that need to match up. I like it, but I would rather see Puempel scratched and the team go with 7 defensemen, but that will not happen. With Phil Varone sent down and no call-up made as of yet, Thomas Chabot will be the lone healthy scratch but will have Clarke MacArthur to keep him company.

Craig Anderson will get the start coming off what I think was his best start of the season in the 4-1 loss to the Lightning, and although his team was badly outplayed in front of him he kept his club in the game and gave them a chance against a better team who were way better on the night. If he can give that performance most night, more often than not the Senators will come away with a win. My concern is that type of night is becoming fewer and farther between.

It will be a good test of the defensive system and limiting shots against, because the Canucks sit 29th in the league with just 25.3 shots per game, and have a season high of 31 that they have reached twice. If Ottawa can't hold this opponent to under 30 shots, then some re-evaluation must be done.

The Canucks record might be a little misleading since they started out 4-0, but they have lost their last 2 outings, Saturday in LA (in a shootout) and Sunday in Anahiem.

This is just Ottawa's second road game of the year, and they will want to put together a much better effort than they did in Detroit, where they were stymied by Petr Mrazek and the Red Wings.


Puck drop is at 10:00 PM Eastern, on TSN5

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