Preseason Game 4: Ottawa Senators @ Montreal Canadians

After dropping last night's preseason game in Ottawa 4-3 in the shootout to the Montreal Canadians, the Senators hope to bounce back and get a win to bring their preseason record to 2-1-1.

Last night's game featured a heavily veteran leaden lineup, with Daniel Alfredsson and Jason Spezza seeing their first game action and Craig Anderson playing in his first full game of the season. The line-up tonight is very intriguing, and features many younger players, and players who played well last night. According to Louis Jean the lines will be as follows:

Forwards:

Filatov-Smith-Zibanejad
Michalek-Regin-Neil
Greening-Da Costa-Condra
Daugavins-Grant-Parrish

Defence:

Cowen-Gonchar
Borowiecki- Rumball  Rundblad
Wiercioch-Carkner

Goalies:

Lehner
McKenna

Some thoughts:

• Weird line combinations tonight. Neil with Michalek and Regin? Smith with Zibanejad and Filatov? Guess it IS preseason, and this IS the time to try out some new things, but very strange. On the other hand, nice to see Smith get a chance to play with some skill players after potting two last night.
• The return of the Cowchar: This is the second time we have seen this pairing. Will be interesting to see if they play well together once again, because this could conceivably be an opening day pairing.
• Lehner gets the start tonight, and while I'm unsure whether he'll play the whole game, I get the feeling he has something to prove, after a rough outing last time against the Leafs (which was attributed to an illness).
• After sitting out some of the training camp and the first three preseason games, it should be nice to see big Matty Carkner out there tonight. I'm not sure where he fits onto this team this year (likely a 7th d-man, good in the room), but he should have a calming influence on his partner, Patty Wiercioch tonight (I hope).
• After a fantastic game last night with fantastic wingers, Stephane Da Costa is going to show whether or not he can raise the game of those around him.
• Lastly, I get the sense that this is a big game for David Rundblad. He seemed to be down after the first few games didn't go his way. After a day off, hopefully he will be fresh and ready to show why everyone is so excited about him.

As always, join us in the comment section for thoughts, hilarious photoshops, nicknames and general proclamations of love and hate!