Game 7 preview: Ottawa Senators @ Calgary Flames

For their second game of their Western Canada road trip, the Ottawa Senators head into Calgary to take on the Calgary Flames on Friday night. In their last game, the Senators posted a 3-0 shutout win against the Vancouver Canucks for their first win in Roger's Arena since 2004.

Unfortunately Craig Anderson has left the team to tend to a personal matter at home. Our thoughts are with him at this time. For the Senators, that means that Andrew Hammond will be getting the start in net with newly recalled Chris Driedger backing him up.

Coach Guy Boucher mixed up the lines last game, and is expected to go with the same lineup with Thomas Chabot being a healthy scratch again. Calgary is expected to start former Senator Brian Elliott who is coming off a win on Tuesday night.

The expected lines for tonight are:

Hoffman - Turris - Pyatt
Dzingel - Brassard - Ryan
Smith - Pageau - Stone
Puempel - Kelly - Neil

Methot - Karlsson
Phaneuf - Ceci
Borowiecki - Wideman

Hammond (starter)
Driedger

Some notes for tonight:

• The Sens will be taking on Alex Chiasson for the first time since his off-season trade to the Flames in exchange for Patrick Sieloff. The trade has impacted both teams in the early season; Chiasson currently holding a spot on Calgary's top line, while Sieloff made a hard hit on Clarke MacArthur in a preseason scrimmage that sent him to the IR again.
• In a strange scheduling coincidence, the Sens met the Flames on this same day last year. In that game, the Sens emerged victorious with a 5-4 shootout win despite being outshot 38-23.
• Sens assistant coach Rob Cookson will be facing his former team for the first time since leaving Calgary in 2011 after 10 seasons with the club.
• Mike Hoffman has yet to find the back of the net, but it is still early in the season. He has taken the second-most shots among players who have yet to score (behind James Neal).
• On this day last year, Ryan Dzingel had only three assists through seven AHL games. So far this year, he has four goals and two assists through six games. The seventh-round pick received in exchange for Alex Kovalev seems to be working out great so far!
• While it is very early in the season, the Sens currently possess the league-worst powerplay at 6.7% with only one goal in 15 attempts. Calgary is just a shade better with a 12.1% success rate.
• Andrew Hammond is looking for his first win of the season after allowing five goals on 25 shots against Detroit in his only other start.
• Cody Ceci and Dion Phaneuf continue to be at the bottom of the team when it comes to plus-minus and possession stats, will they start to turn it around tonight?

Here are some stats for the two teams tonight for last season. All stats are from NHL.com except Corsi and Fenwick are from www.puckon.net.