Two teams with identical records match up Saturday night at Canadian Tire Centre, as the Tampa Bay Lightning come to town to face the Senators. Both teams have won three of their four games, with Ottawa holding a perfect 3-0 record at home, while this will be Tampa's first game away from their home arena.

Guy Boucher will take Thomas Chabot out of the lineup and put Phil Varone back in to make it a complement of twelve forwards and six defensemen.

You have to think that Varone is only keeping Curtis Lazar's spot warm. Lazar had a nice goal in regulation and added one in the shootout in Binghamton's loss to Albany last night. One goal does not mean he is now a professional goal scorer and a few more games like that to get him accustomed to scoring would certainly benefit himself and the Senators going forward.

The Senators will look to get another win on home ice before they head west to face the Canucks, Oilers and Flames in an early season Western Canada trip, one that they usually do in February.

Tampa is going to be chomping at the bit, coming off a 4-0 loss in a game where they allowed only 16 shots but scored 4 times on Ben Bishop. The former Senators goalie will be in the opposition net tonight facing his old team as they begin a 6 game road trip.

Jonathan Drouin, Steven Stamkos and Alex Killorn all have 4 points on the season, to lead the Lightning. They have iced the same 18 skaters for every game so far this season.

Mike Hoffman is still looking for his first goal of the season, but he does have 3 assists in 4 games and the offense will come. Ottawa has scored more than any team in the Atlantic Division but they have also allowed the most on average. They are one of 3 teams that have scored 4 goals per game, but are also one of just 5 that have allowed 4 goals per game. If they can keep the offensive pace while cutting the goals against they will be in good shape. That will fall on Craig Anderson, who needs to be better than he has been for the club to be successful in the long term. Not that it is all on Anderson, and the players in front of him can also do a much better job of helping him out as well.

The big news off the ice is that injured forward Clarke MacArthur has begun skating and will accompany the team on the road trip. He is still a long way from returning, but he is committed to resuming his NHL career at some point. From all accounts he is well liked in the room and him being around the guys can only be positive. You can only hope for his future as a person that he is not letting ego get in the way of making the proper decision, as he is treading a fine line in terms of concussions.

The game is on at 7:00 on Sportsnet360 and Sportsnet1.

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