The Ottawa Senators are heading into their sixth game of the season among the hottest teams to start the season. It will be a rematch with the Vancouver Canucks and it’s a big night for Ottawa as Erik Karlsson will make his return.
When these two last met it was one week ago and the Ottawa Senators were coming off back to back shootout losses to start the season. The game went to a shootout again, but this time they were victorious by the score of 3-2. This gave them their first win of the season and they would go onto sweep their Western Canada road trip.
Forward
Going into the game the Sens have opted to ice 11 forwards again. They will be: Zack Smith, Kyle Turris, Ryan Dzingel, Bobby Ryan, Derick Brassard, Mark Stone, Mike Hoffman, Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Tom Pyatt, Nate Thompson, and Alex Burrows. Once again Guy Boucher has decided to scratch Logan Brown in favour of seven defencemen.
Defence
On defence the Sens will be using seven defencemen including captain Erik Karlsson for the first time. The other six are: Dion Phaneuf, Johnny Oduya, Cody Ceci, Mark Borowiecki, Chris Wideman, and Fredrik Claesson.
Goal
In goal the Sens will start Craig Anderson. Both him and Condon have performed remarkably to start the season but unless Anderson falters he will remain the starter for the foreseeable future.
Next: Ottawa Senators: Erik Karlsson Set To Make His Return
Erik Karlsson
The main story for this game is of course the return of Erik Karlsson. After undergoing surgery during the summer, he has been unable to play in any of the Sens first five games. Luckily while he was gone the Sens were able to perform remarkably well. Now with Karlsson in the lineup the Sens should be able to perform even better.
Karlsson will lineup next to Dion Phaneuf on the first pairing tonight. However, with the Ottawa Senators dressing seven defencemen, Karlsson will likely see time with most of the defencemen tonight. Guy Boucher will be looking to determine which six he wants to go with this season as it’s unlikely that he’ll choose to ice seven defencemen regularly for the entirety of the season.