Preseason Game 3 Preview & Open Thread: Montréal Canadiens @ Ottawa Senators

The all-Canadian preseason continues for the Ottawa Senators. After hosting the Toronto Maple Leafs in town on Wednesday, the team’s other arch-nemesis has arrived for a game of utmost importance for the bubble players trying to make the opening night roster.

We’ll know a bit more on the lines after the 10:30am EST morning skate, but here’s the 23-player roster for tonight’s game:

News Release: #Sens announce 23-player roster for Saturday’s home pre-season game; reduce training camp roster by 10: https://t.co/8viMvRVDVW

Communiqué: Les #Sens dévoilent l’alignement de 23 joueurs pour le match préparatoire à domicile de samedi : https://t.co/W2jHrlmQna pic.twitter.com/T0K1sRDdSV

— Sens Communications (@Media_Sens) September 20, 2019

Craig Anderson will play two periods in goal, while Joey Daccord will get his first action of the preseason in the third period.

Update: Here are tonight’s lines, via TSN’s Brent Wallace:

Sens line-up for tonight’s game vs MTL:
Tkachuk White C.Brown
Duclair Pageau Batherson
Formenton Norris Davidsson
Klimchuk Chlapik Veroneau

Chabot Zaitsev
Lajoie Demelo
Englund Goloubef

Anderson - starting
Daccord

— Brent Wallace (@tsn_wally) September 21, 2019

Game Notes

• The official website posted an update yesterday from D.J. Smith. Of note, Vitaly Abramov showed symptoms of a concussion after Monday night’s game but Smith noted “he’s already almost back but we’re just going through the protocol with him.” Mikkel Boedker is almost in game shape and will likely play in Vancouver.
• The team cut 10 players from the training camp roster. Maxence Guenette was returned to Val-D’Or (and suited up in their first game of the season) and two-goal man Tristan Scherwey was released from his PTO and is expected back at SC Bern (NLA). J.C. Beaudin, Mark Kastelic, Jack Rodewald, Andrew Sturtz, Jonathan Aspirot, Hubert Labrie, Nick Ebert, and Michael Carcone were all assigned to Belleville’s training camp, with the latter two needing to clear waivers. No one here is really a “surprise”, but I thought that Ebert, Carcone, and Rodewald would maybe stick around a little longer given their relative age and past pro experience. The younger kids are getting the first shot.
• The Sens training camp roster now has 42 players, with five goaltenders, 12 defencemen, and 25 forwards. D.J. Smith would like to get it down to 30, with three goaltenders and 27 skaters, before the team flies to Vancouver. I expect Filip Gustavsson — who played the third against Toronto — and Joey Daccord to be the two goaltenders heading down, but that leaves 10 skaters that need to be cut after tonight.
• What do I think? Cody Goloubef, Andreas Englund, Jordan Murray, Morgan Klimchuk, and Joe LaBate from tonight’s roster; in addition to Parker Kelly, Scott Sabourin (rent-free!), and Jordan Szwarz. That’s eight. Two more will be some of the kids on the bubble.
• The bubble players in tonight’s game include Max Lajoie, Max Veronneau, Jonathan Davidsson, Drake Batherson, Josh Norris, Alex Formenton, and Filip Chlapik. Erik Brännström, Vitaly Abramov, Rudolfs Balcers, Logan Brown, and Nick Paul aren’t in tonight, and will likely get another game.
• This will be our first look at the Thomas Chabot - Nikita Zaitsev pairing. Here’s what D.J. had to say about them: /

Chabot is a guy that we need to be in the rush and be a guy to create offence for us so Zaitsev has to be a guy that cleans it up a little bit for him. We want him to break the puck out but defend as well. He has a role that’s a little bit like what Ron Hainsey had last year with Rielly but at the same point we want Zaitsev to have some freedom to get involved too.

• From a Montréal perspective, watch Nick Suzuki on the top-line with Tomas Tatar and Phillip Danault. Former Devils’ netminder Keith Kinkaid will patrol the goal. Top prospect Ryan Poehling is out indefinitely with a concussion.
• Game time is 7:30 PM EST. You can catch the game on TSN5 and RDS. /