Game #9 Hub: Ottawa Senators vs St. Louis Blues

Regarding how they play the first eight games in a season, the Ottawa Senators are the same club from the last two seasons. They've started 4-4-0 in each of the last three seasons, but from this game on, we need to see some changes from before. Back from a 1-2-0 road trip, they're looking for that elusive fifth October victory tonight against the St. Louis Blues.

They choked against Vegas and were thoroughly outplayed against Colorado, two things that can happen to any NHL team (except Vegas and Colorado, I guess.) But if they get a similar result to a weaker team in St. Louis, we're running out of teams we can beat, especially with a road game against a scary Rangers team coming up after that. With so many teams in the Atlantic within a point of each other, this one's crucial.

Zack Ostapchuk is expected to make his season debut tonight, while Cole Reinhardt has returned to Belleville. Here are the projected lines, with Linus Ullmark expected to start in goal:

Game Notes:

• Both teams will have their depth tested tonight, as Ottawa continues to be without David Perron (personal reasons), Artem Zub (concussion), and Shane Pinto (undisclosed), while St. Louis will be without star playmaker Robert Thomas for tonight's game as well.
• I'd like to see Tim Stützle shoot more, especially since pucks seem to be going in for him more easily this time – he's got only 12 shots on goal in 8 games. Brady Tkachuk will obviously lead the team in shots but he's a better playmaker than most give him credit for, and Stützle did have that 39-goal campaign in 2023. Mike Amadio? He's bound to do something with the puck at some point, right?
• .While St. Louis is struggling to score both at 5-on-5 and on the power-play, the club's big offseason move of offer sheeting former Edmonton defenseman Phillip Broberg is paying off so far, as he has 2 goals and 5 assists in 9 games.
• It's a 7:00 pm EST start tonight, and the game is available on TSN5, RDSI, and TSN 1200.

Stats:

• from NHL.com and NaturalStatTrick.com: