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It’s been over five months since the last real Ottawa Senators game. The summer has been an absolute drag, which is probably the understatement of the century. There have been so many things to talk about that it’s hard to keep up with everything that happened: there was the Mike Hoffman trade, the Monika Caryk allegations, the Randy Lee resignation, the Eugene Melnyk rumours, the Erik Karlsson trade, and so much more.
But now we can try our best to put that aside and finally watch some hockey. It’s hard to pretend that everything is normal, but I will say it will be nice to talk about what’s happening
on the ice instead. The Senators are in Lucan Ontario tonight as a part of Kraft Hockeyville and they will be facing off against the Toronto Maple Leafs:
The roster that they are sending to Lucan is as follows:
Obviously not everybody on the NHL roster will be in the lineup, but there are still some intriguing names playing tonight. Bruce Garrioch tweeted out the lines earlier, although he was then notified by Guy Boucher that he will change the lines. If we go off of these lines though, Formenton-Duchene-Dzingel is must-watch hockey due to their speed, and other youngsters such as Logan Brown, Drake Batherson, and Christian Wolanin will have lots of attention on that. Even someone like Dylan Demelo isn’t obviously a rookie, but I’ll be watching him to get a sense of how one of the newest Senator plays:
It’s the first of six preseason games, and I’m sure after this game people will be clamoring for the regular season to start. Nevertheless, this is what we have to work with right now, and I’ll take any sort of hockey games that I can get right now. I’m not going to lie, this is the least excited I’ve ever been before an NHL season, but it’s a lot better being able to follow games rather than talk about the downfall of the franchise.
Even in a season with nothing to play for, there are still plenty of reasons to watch the team. Rookies like Brady Tkachuk, Logan Brown, Colin White, Filip Chlapik, Christian Wolanin, Alex Formenton, Drake Batherson, and Rudolfs Balcers could all potentially get games in Ottawa, and every single one of them are good prospects who should be followed. Craig Anderson had a horrendous 17-18 season, but can he bounce back? Will Mark Stone and Matt Duchene be ultra motivated by their impending free agent status? Can Ryan Dzingel score 20 goals again or even more? Can Thomas Chabot become a legitimate top pairing defenseman? Just because Ottawa will almost certainly be a cellar dweller doesn’t mean that there is no reason to watch.
From now until April, there will be real games to discuss, and that is truly fantastic. You can catch the game tonight on Sportsnet.
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