Gameday #7: Senators @ Canadiens
By Bobby Zijiac
7:00 PM ET
CBC (Ottawa Region)
FanSided Enemy: None
In what should be an emotional return for Alex Kovalev tonight, Ottawa heads to the Bell Centre to face Les Habitants. Right there in the upper bowl will be moi so I hope I won’t go deaf after tonight. You know, those rowdy Hab fans. The same ones who destroyed their city 2 years ago.
On the Habs side, Greg Stewart will be a healthy scratch. Here are their lines for tonight…
Cammalleri – Gomez – Gionta
Kostitsyn – Plekanec – Pacioretty
Latendresse – Lapierre – D’Agostini
Moen – Chipchura – Laraque
Hamrlik – Spacek
Gill – Gorges
Belle – Mara
And for the Sens Filip Kuba is out while Jesse Winchester is a healthy scratch. Peter Regin is probable so Clouston may want to take out Shannon tonight and place in Rags. Otherwise the lines will looks the same. For both teams their No.1 goaltender are starting tonight. Leclaire has shown in the past games he’s the real deal while on the other end Price has been wabbling around for much of this young season. Everybody who’s ready my writing knows I despise Carey Price so let’s just say Pascal steals this one.
It’s obvious Ottawa has more depth on offense than Montreal. Even though that first line on the Habs can be really good, they still haven’t found their chemistry. Ottawa has. They even have threats from 2nd line and the 3rd line. Advantage Sens. Montreal has a good mix of defenders but are missing Markov and O’Byrne from the lineup and waiting to see when MA Bergeron will arrive. Jaro Spacek is a very underrated puck mover but I can’t see him eating up minutes. Same goes for Hamrlik. The bottom 4 are pretty much guys who can keep the puck out of the net. Ottawa has some mean, nasty defenders in Volchenkov and Carkner and have pure offensive defenseman in Karlsson, Picard, and Campoli. Advantage, yet again, Sens. Even though Montreal has all the intagibles and Ottawa does not, I’m still going with…
Ottawa 4 (Foligno, Spezza, Kovalev, Ruutu SO Winner)
Montreal 3 (Hamrlik, Gomez, Plekanec)
So who’s net on the Volchenkov rookie darting board? Pacioretty? Chipchura? Belle? I’m going with the latter.