Senators Make Roster Changes Before Road Trip
Sens swap Peumpel for Greening, and Driedger for O'Connor before the Central swing
The Senators announced that Matt Puempel was being returned to Binghamton yesterday, to some speculation. Was it just to play in Bingo's game in Toronto yesterday and he'd be called right back up? Was Clarke MacArthur ready to come back?
Well, according to Brent Wallace it was neither of those. It also isn't the only move being made. The Sens confirmed it this morning.
The Sens are calling up Chris Driedger and Colin Greening for the trip. Driedger is a goalie swap and Greening replaces Puempel.
— Brent Wallace (@tsn_wally) November 23, 2015
That collective groan you hear? That's the fan base reacting to the return of Colin Greening. Greening has four goals and five assists in 16 games so far in the AHL this season, good for fifth on the team and 113th overall. That's not terrible, but you kind of expect more from a 29 year old with 255 NHL games playing in the AHL.
It's easy to expect that he's a warm body in case of injury and won't likely make the lineup, but then they sent down the guy who was playing. Are we really that confident Shane Prince will go in and stay in over Greening for the entire trip?
The swap of Chris Driedger for Matt O'Connor makes a lot more sense. There were a few lingering questions from the O'Connor call-up on just why it wasn't Driedger who got the call, and this swap might give us a clue. It wasn't likely that whoever got the call last week would see the net on home ice so O'Connor got some time with Rick Wamsley, but Driedger gets the call when some ice time might be called for with a road back-to-back.