The most important game (actually the first half of a pair of important games) of the early season goes down tonight at the Joe in Detroit as the Senators and Red Wings open a back to back set that, if one team should sweep, would create an early gap in the standings and give said team a leg up.
This is the first game for the Senators against a team that they were realistically expected to be in direct competition with for the third playoff spot in the division and/or a wild-card spot. That is looking like it will be the case, as they both hit the 10 game mark tonight separated by a single point in the standings. It is still too early to put too much emphasis on where they sit right now, but on Sunday the Senators could own a 5 point edge, trail by 3 or almost anything in between.
Don't expect much in the way of lineup changes for the Senators tonight, as Mike Hoffman was still deemed out following yesterday's skate (it is an optional practice this morning) and Curtis Lazar is still dealing with his concussion and the required protocol in terms of rest and symptoms. Dave Cameron said he hopes to have Hoffman in the lineup on Saturday night, but no timetable for Lazar's return.
From yesterday's skate, the lines and defense pairs looked the same as they started out in Wednesday's win over the Flames, with Shane Prince on the top line. Obviously there was shuffling during the game, because Prince ended up playing just over 10 minutes and Bobby Ryan took a number of shifts with Turris and Stone. I would think you would expect more of the same tonight.
Andrew Hammond will start in goal for the Senators, and Craig Anderson will get the Halloween start at home.
Ottawa ended a 4 game slide and salvaged a win on the 4 game homestand against the Flames in their last outing, while the Red Wings fell to the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday in their first game back following a Western Canada road swing.
Jimmy Howard starts for the Wings, who are still without slick centre Pavel Datsyuk who has yet to play this season. Slick rookie Dylan Larkin will play in his 10th game of the season, triggering the first year of his entry level contract. Larkin has been one of the top rookies of the season, with 7 points in 9 games, and perhaps even more impressive a +8 rating, while the next best Wing is +2.
Detroit has dropped 4 of their last 5 games, and have had trouble scoring goals (less than 2 per game over that span). But then again we heard the same thing about offensive struggles heading into Wednesday and the Flames put up 4, so you can't put too much stock into those trends.
This is a case of two teams who both think they should be better than they have played, and what better time than the present to show that they indeed are. Like I said earlier, it is still October, but this is an important back to back for both teams. Hopefully they play like it, and especially for the Senators, not like they have played the last few contests.