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A tale of two lineups, meaning a tale of two games for the home and home series with the Ottawa Senators and Montreal Canadiens, these last two nights. The Habs won a much more lower scoring affair tonight 2-1 over Ottawa after the Sens dominated Montreal last night 7-2.
Ottawa went with a much more inexperienced line-up on the road, much like they did in Winnipeg in the pre-season opener. Anton Forsberg played a strong game in goal before giving way to Filip Gustavsson, with each goaltender allowing one goal. Tim Stutzle scored the Sens lone goal in which Ottawa had yet another abysmal second period, much like they did in the Jets game last week. Even though these second period lapses are happening in the pre-season, it occurred far too much last season and it certainly needs to stop with the regular season approaching!
Tonight was definitely one of Erik Brannstroms' better games this pre-season but in my eyes Lassi Thomson has outplayed him in his three games which is troubling considering how much hope management had for him coming into the season. It's nice to see the progression by Thomson and with 7 defensemen on one way contracts, we all know Thomson is destined for the AHL due to waiver issues. Jacob Bernard-Docker got his first pre=season action tonight and looked steady, while he is also destined for the AHL.
Outside of being strong in the faceoff circle tonight, Chris Tierney was yet again silent and I truly can't see him being no better than this team's third line center. All of this after Dorion and Smith preaching to the fans how Tierney could be the Sens number two center. Shane Pinto has taken a strangle hold on the number two center role after a strong showing last night in the 7-2 win.
It sounds like the coaching staff will be narrowing the roster this coming week so it will be interesting to see who continues to get action over the next few pre-season games as the battle on the blueline and the two open forward positions shakes out.
Clark Bishop and Parker Kelly are out indefinitely with injuries.
I wanted to get a quick post-game blog up tonight after I was unable too last night, while I am curious to hear Sens fans thoughts on the last 2 games with regards to players on the bubble. See you all in in the comment section of the blog.
The next pre-season game for Ottawa is on Monday night as they play host to Toronto and it will be televised on Sportsnet Ontario.
Thanks for reading.
Kevin