The Ottawa Senators host the Buffalo Sabres in a return matchup that will have a vastly different look, at least for the home side, than the team that took to the ice on Wednesday night in Buffalo.
The Senators' 25 man roster was released, and the game should feature the pre-season debuts of a couple of key players for the Sens, Mark Stone and Marc Methot.
It also features 5 of the current favorites to be top 6 forwards, minus Mika Zibanejad. It looks like it could be Nick Paul slotted into the spot between Ryan and Hoffman for this one.
The morning skate, however, featured essentially the 4 lines that would be expected to start opening night, plus a line of Prince-O'Dell-Paul, so the *subject to change* disclaimer could be in effect. It is training camp, however, so I wouldn't expect them to ice a full NHL lineup at this point in the process so they will probably play a couple of veteran NHL lines, and mix in some prospects from the first and second group to round out the lineup.
Craig Anderson will get the start and I would guess he will go the distance as the start of the regular season looms and they will be looking to stretch out their starting goalies.
The battle for the final roster spots could continue as Shane Prince and Matt Puempel are both on the roster. Puempel left yesterday's practice early but apparently is ok and skated with the NHL group this morning, although he wasn't on one of the 5 lines so his participation tonight is still a question mark. Gotta love the pre-season!
Buffalo is coming in after a come from behind win 6-4 in Toronto last night, but wouldn't expect many (or any for that matter) of the players who suited up to play on back to back nights. This means that Ottawa fans will get their first look at 2nd overall pick Jack Eichel, who sat out his second straight game last night and is probably chomping at the bit to get back on the ice.
Robin Lehner won't dress, having played 40 minutes last night and Chad Johnson is expected to start for Buffalo.
As I expected yesterday, Buffalo's Jason Akeson was not given supplementary discipline for his hit that knocked Colin Greening out of Wednesday's game, and the Ottawa native could be in the lineup tonight against the Sens.
The next three games for the Senators are on the road, so this will be the final opportunity for a lot of players to show their wares on home ice. The next time the team plays on Canadian Tire Centre ice will be next Saturday against Montreal, at which point the roster should be pretty set and it will be final tuneup for the lineup that will begin the season.