Ottawa Senators Training Camp Check-in and Preseason Game 2 Preview: Sept. 29th

Come and discuss tonight’s game as the team looks to make it 2-0 in the preseason!

It’s been a while since the Ottawa Senators have lost a hockey game, unless of course you count their recent intrasquad scrimmage in which they lost to themselves.

Following back-to-back victories against Montreal’s rookies, the club began the 2021-22 NHL preseason with a well-earned 3-2 overtime victory (plus a shootout win to boot) against the Winnipeg Jets. Tonight, it’s a tilt against the perennial regular-season juggernauts, the Toronto Maple Leafs, who split their first two games with Montreal, the most recent being a 5-2 loss.

Today’s roster, while featuring a completely different set of players than what we saw in Winnipeg, follows the same formula of mixing players from both the NHL and the lower leagues. There’s more NHL talent this time around, featuring Tim Stützle and Connor Brown, as well as newcomer Zach Sanford, acquired from St. Louis a few days ago in exchange for Logan Brown.

  • Sanford brings playoff experience from the Blues’ 2018-19 campaign in which they won the Stanley Cup, and he also is a former teammate of Colin White’s from Boston College during the 2015-16 season. Don’t be surprised to see the two line up together tonight./
  • There aren’t too many prospects playing tonight, but I’ll be keeping an eye on Zach Ostapchuk. The 39th pick of the 2021 NHL Entry Draft has drawn attention to himself through his performance in the rookie games and is the only 2021 draft pick who will take part in an NHL preseason game this year. It’ll also be interesting to watch Mads Søgaard or Kevin Mandolese in goal, expect one of them to split the game with Filip Gustavsson.
  • Michael Del Zotto and Nick Holden will likely see their first action in a Senators’ jersey tonight, as well. In particular, we may get a look at the organization’s most recent attempt at a shutdown pair in Del Zotto and Nikita Zaitsev.
  • Chris Tierney is among the group of veterans playing tonight, and he’s looking to take advantage of being healthy this year to have a strong training camp.
  • The team practiced in two groups yesterday, with Group B primarily featuring those who are likely or guaranteed to make the opening night roster. Shane Pinto and Parker Kelly are in this group, while Egor Sokolov and Ridly Greig arent, but there’s still plenty of time to make an impression./
  • It appears that the makeup of these groups is independent of that of the rosters for the preseason games. This seems like the correct approach as the team will be able to continue to evaluate their prospects and depth players while simultaneously allowing their established players to become familiar with each other. /
  • As of this morning, here’s how your Ottawa Senators are expected to line up tonight:/
  • Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 PM EST tonight, and the game will be available to watch on TSN4 and TSN5. /

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