The Senators play their final pre-season game, and it is a return matchup of Thursday's game, with the rival Montreal Canadiens paying a visit to Canadian Tire Centre.
You can bet the Senators will ice pretty much their projected NHL roster tonight, in a final dress rehearsal for the season.
I talked about the Colin Greening situation in yesterday's post, and shortly afterwards the Senators made the right move, one that I wasn't sure they would. They placed Greening on waivers yesterday, and Bryan Murray told the media that he would be sent to Binghamton if he cleared. He will make his $2.75M, it will just be while riding the buses, because I don't see a team picking him up.
That moves opens up another spot on the roster, if the Senators want to use it. In my mind, even though they said the decision would be made after Saturday night, Shane Prince has made the team and should be in the everyday lineup somewhere. Practice lines yesterday didn't show that however, as Prince and Matt Puempel were the extras.
MacArthur - Turris - Stone Hoffman - Zibanejad - Ryan Michalek - Pageau - Lazar Chiasson - Smith - Neil Prince - Puempel
Karlsson - Methot Ceci - Wiercioch Cowen - Borowiecki Wideman - Fraser (Fraser cleared waivers yesterday and was sent to Bingo)
The club might be giving the veterans Chiasson and Neil the benefit of the doubt, but before too long Prince will be taking one of their spots and they will be rotating in the 12/13 hole.
So, there were indeed no major surprises at camp and the lineup looks exactly like almost everyone had projected all summer. The only question that remains is, do the Senators keep Puempel around as the "14th" forward or do they just carry 13? Given his age, I wouldn't anticipate the team keeping him around to just be a practice player. He needs quality ice time and he will get that in Binghamton, so that he will be at pace when called upon during the season. They will likely just carry 22, plus Phillips and Hammond who will both start the year on the DL.
Andrew Hammond is out for 2 weeks with the groin injury suffered in Thursday's pre-game skate, meaning Matt O'Connor will be in a real NHL uniform sooner than expected. However, Craig Anderson will likely get all of the action to start the season, including all 3 in the first 4 nights of the Senators' campaign.