Preseason Game 7: Ottawa Senators @ Boston Bruins
With tonight's 7:00 p.m. game not on local Ottawa TV, NHL Centre Ice will be freely available and pick up the NESN feed. This means listening to Jack Edwards, who is awesome because he regularly mocks the Montreal Canadiens. In last season's season finale, he also called Zack Smith a cement-head, but we all know what Zack Smith thinks about that.
Unlike the last time these clubs met, the Bruins will be playing most of their star players. So, this should provide us with a good chance to see how the Sens match up against the Stanley Cup champions on the road. Sadly, Zenon Konopa will also be playing, his first appearance since the pre-season opener in Toronto.
Here are the likely lines courtesy of the Ottawa Senators website.
Forwards
Colin Greening - Jason Spezza - Nikita Filatov
Milan Michalek - Mika Zibanejad - Daniel Alfredsson
Nick Foligno - Zack Smith - Bobby Butler
Erik Condra - Zenon Konopka - Chris Neil
I haven't been able to find the defensive pairings, but Chris Phillips and Matt Carkner are out with ailments, while Erik Karlsson didn't travel with the team according to Allen Panzeri. I assume (and hope) he is just being rested after looking tired playing on Tuesday in Ottawa and Monday in Newfoundland.
My thoughts after the jump.
- Zenon Konopka plays his second game of the pre-season on a line with Chris Neil. Will Konopka win a face-off and immediately skate to the bench? I sure hope so.
- With Karlsson, Phillips and Carkner out, that presumably means Cowen, Rundblad, Lee, Gonchar, Kuba and Borowiecki are playing. What will the pairings be?
- Colin Greening gets to play with Jason Spezza again while Bobby Butler has to play with Nick Foligno and Zack Smith. Is it safe to assume MacLean isn't happy with Butler's pre-season play?
- Craig Anderson is going to play the full sixty minutes for only the second time this pre-season. Hopefully he is in good form for next Friday.