UPDATE: It appears at the game day skate that Colin Greening and Mike Hoffman along with Jared Cowen are the healthy scratches, meaning Condra will stay in the lineup, not Greening as suggested by the practice yesterday. Anderson looks like he will get the start.
Off the 3 game season opening road trip that had its share of ups and downs, the Ottawa Senators return home to start a stretch of 4 straight home games and 8 of 11.
Paying their only visit to Canadian Tire Centre are the Colorado Avalanche, who will be playing their 3rd game in 4 nights following a 2-1 win in Boston on Monday and a 3-2 OT loss to Toronto on Tuesday. They opened their season with back to back shutout losses to the Minnesota Wild, the team that eliminated them from the playoffs in 7 games last season.
The Avs have been slow out of the gate, with just 4 goals in 4 games, while the Senators have managed 4 goals in 3 games, all on the road.
For the Senators, it looked like Jared Cowen would be a healthy scratch for the second straight game, in favor of Patrick Wiercioch. That was the big news around the team yesterday, with Cowen stating he was surprised that he was benched so early in the season. Coach MacLean said that he is still a young NHL player and has to continue to work on his game in order to get back into the lineup on a consistent basis.
Also sitting out will be Mike Hoffman and Erik Condra, while Curtis Lazar will step back into the lineup and Colin Greening will stay in after missing the first two games as a healthy scratch.
Remember when MacLean stated that "the best players will play"? I don't think there would be anyone who would say that Greening had much of a positive impact on the game, and at least wasn't as good a Condra, who also played his first game of the season against the Panthers.
It appears pretty obvious that contract will play a role in determining the lineup. Greening is in the first year of a 3 year contract extension and the Senators, rightly or wrongly, are giving him a chance to get his game going and fill whatever role they have in mind for him. Either that or they are trying to showcase him for a potential trade, if they can find someone to take that contract off their hands.
Here is how the forward lines looked at practice yesterday, subject to change as always with MacLean:
MacArthur - Turris - Stone Ryan - Zibanejad - Chiasson Lazar - Smith - Michalek Greening - Legwand - Neil Extras: Hoffman/Condra
MacLean will name his starting goalie after the pre-game skate, but from the way they have played this season so far, either Craig Anderson or Robin Lehner would be a good decision.
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The Senators finished with a home record of 18-17-6, and that lack of success in their own rink was a big factor in their missing the playoffs. If you don't win at least 20 games outright, your chances of making the playoffs are pretty slim.
The Avalanche are a fast team and it will put the Senators roster to the test. The Senators cannot afford to get hemmed in their own zone for extended periods of time, because the like of Nathan MacKinnon, Matt Duchene and Ryan O'Reilly will make them pay. Getting the puck out of the zone in a timely and consistent manner should be priority #1 for the team, and will continue to be an area of focus until they get it straightened out.
Another area the Senators need to improve upon is the faceoff circle. The Senators rank 23rd in the league in faceoffs, with Kyle Turris being a low 37%. Mika Zibanejad is just under the 50% mark and David Legwand has been good with over 57% faceoff success. Those 3 account for 85% of the faceoffs taken by the team and if Turris can get his percentage up, it will go a long way to having more puck possession and the team can worry more about moving the puck rather than chasing it.
The Avalanche are one of the worst teams on the draw (28th), with none of their regular faceoff artists being above the 50% mark. That is one place (among many) where the Avs really miss Paul Stastny, who was 54% for the team last season.
If you are inclined, you can attend the red carpet ceremony around 4:30, where the players will arrive and walk the red carpet through the fans before the home opener. Also, there will be a projection show at 7:15 ahead of the puck drop at 7:30. The game is on TSN5 with the pregame starting at 7:00.