UPDATE: Curtis Lazar will play and Colin Greening will come out. Looks like the lines will be what they were set to be before Lazar's injury:
MacArthur - Turris - Chiasson Hoffman - Lazar - Stone Zibanejad - Legwand- Ryan Michalek - Smith - Neil
Phillips is out again so Wiercioch will stay in the lineup, and as expected Anderson will start in goal.
--- The Ottawa Senators commence an all-important (haven't we said that a lot so far this season) road trip on Monday, kicking it off in the Motor City against a Red Wings team that is currently 3 points up on the Senators, who have a game in hand. That makes this tilt a proverbial 4 point game.
Like the Senators, the Wings are coming off a loss, 4-1 at the hands of the turbulent Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night, finishing off a three game road trip that saw them go 2-1.
Pavel Datsyuk missed that entire trip with a recurring groin injury that has caused him to sit for half of the Wings' games this season.
I am sure the Senators will be quaking in their skates at the anticipated return of Stephen Weiss to the lineup. Weiss signed one of the worst contracts of the summer of 2013, and has rewarded Detroit with 27 games and 4 points over a season and a quarter. Weiss has played 1 game this season.
Henrik Zetterberg has slowed down somewhat after getting off to a torrid start. The Wings captain has just 1 goal and 2 assists in his last 10 games (and nothing in his last 4) after getting 14 points in his first 10.
The Wings' young guns, Gustav Nyquist and Tomas Tatar have been leading the way lighting the lamp, as they are tied for the club lead with 9 goals each. Tatar is particularly hot coming into this game, with 5 goals in his last 5 games.
Jimmy Howard, who had a so-so 2013-14 season, has bounced back this year with an 8-4-4 record, 2.03 GAA and .922 SP. He is likely to start against the Senators.
For the Senators, at practice yesterday Curtis Lazar took part at some points, but was not part of the normal line rushes. With the exception of the swap of Zack Smith back to Michalek and Neil, and Zibanejad to Stone and Hoffman, the lines were as they finished on Saturday night.
Chris Phillips didn't take part in practice, and Mark Borowiecki was the extra defenseman as Wiercioch was paired with Eric Gryba and Marc Methot took a spot alongside Erik Karlsson. Who knows what 6 defensemen will play tonight. I will put an update up later today.
As far as the fancy stats go, Detroit is a top 10 team with a 52.36% Corsi rating while the Senators still sit in the bottom 10, with a 47.25% Corsi.
Paul MacLean has yet to name a starting goalie, but odds are he will turn to Craig Anderson after giving Robin Lehner back to back starts at home.
In terms of special teams, Ottawa has a slight edge in power play percentage (20.6% to 18.8%), while Detroit's penalty kill is 2nd in the league at an excellent 90.1% and Ottawa is just outside the top 10 with 83.6%.
ON ALFIE
The news broke last week that Daniel Alfredsson has essentially given up on playing this season. While he has not announced his retirement as of yet, at 42 years old (in a couple of weeks) the odds of him being able to play next year are slim at best.
If it is indeed the end of the road (something I said was pretty much a "fait accompli" in October) it marks the end of a great career and one that was tarnished slightly with the summer of 2013 antics by both him and the Senators.
Talk of the one day contract have heated up again, and I still personally don't see the value in such a deal, unless it is for a terminally ill child, then I am all for it.
Ian Mendes of TSN1200 wrote a nice piece last week about the thawing of relations between Alfredsson and the Senators, and the organization's potential involvement in the retirement announcement.
The signing of Alfredsson to a contract at this point is about 18 months and a million dollars (or so) late, and symbolic at best. But that is just my opinion. That decision, directly or indirectly led to a number of (mostly) positive steps for the franchise, from the signing of Clarke MacArthur, and the trades for Bobby Ryan and eventually of Jason Spezza.
All I know for sure is that Alfredsson will not be in uniform tonight for the Wings, and everything else will eventually fall into place.