Round 1, Game 2 Preview: Boston Bruins @ Ottawa Senators
The Sens look to rebound at home in a Saturday afternoon matinee.
The Ottawa Senators will look to even up the series against the Boston Bruins before heading over to Massachusetts for Games 3 and 4. It's a 3:00pm EST start.
The depleted Bruins are expected to be without Colin Miller -- still reeling from a Mark Borowiecki hit in the second period of Game 1 -- while David Krejci, Torey Krug, and Noel Acciari are still absent. Defenceman Joe Morrow, acquired in the Tyler Seguin trade (lol) is expected to draw in.
Based on yesterday's morning skate and Guy Boucher's pre-game presser, here's how the Senators are expected to line-up:
Here are some notes for today's contest:
- The "5th line" at morning skate was Neil - White - Wingels; Stalberg is apparently banged up from Game 1 and didn't participate regularly
- Once again, Guy Boucher said to not look at the lines. However, for #speculation purposes, who draws the Bergeron trio? If it's Turris - that's a hard role to throw Ryan Dzingel in after he wasn't trusted to play Game 1. If it's Pageau again, you're risking submarining your two most talented forwards. If it's Kelly? Gulp. Boucher stated that he's comfortable with Phaneuf - Ceci as the D pair.
- Methot is still questionable, with Boucher saying that although he was close for Game 1, he's still having trouble delivering a slap shot. If they're confident in his ability to fully play, Kelly will draw in as the 12th forward and Claesson will be a scratch. If they're not confident, Methot will likely still be in, but the team will roll 11-7 out of caution and Kelly will be out.
- The Sens six-game winning streak against the Bruins came to an abrupt end, so there goes that.
- If you haven't checked out our Game 2 Hotstove and Callum's Game 2 Opening Montage, check them out!
- Around for a bit longer? Michaela and Shaila broke down what went wrong in Game 1 in an episode of That's What She Said. TSN1200 also carried media availabilities from Boucher, Methot, Kelly, Anderson, Pageau, Smith, and Karlsson.
- Here's the link for the NBC free live stream for U.S. watchers
Saturday's Game 2 #bruins #senators is at 3 pm. Asked about their problems with matinees, G Craig Anderson said "that was two coaches ago."
— Chris Stevenson (@CJ_Stevenson) April 14, 2017
Here are some Game 1 stats and regular season numbers for the two teams. All stats are from NHL.com except Corsi and Fenwick are from Corsica.
Category | Ottawa | Boston | ||
Player | # | Player | # | |
Average Ice-time Leader - Forward | Mike Hoffman | 19:15 | Brad Marchand | 21:07 |
Average Ice-time Leader - Defence | Erik Karlsson | 24:04 | Zdeno Chara | 25:32 |
5-on-5 Shot attempt % | Fredrik Claesson | 75% | Patrice Bergeron | 71.43% |
Shots on goal leader | Bobby Ryan | 6 | Zdeno Chara | 5 |
Goalie save percentage | Craig Anderson | .920 | Tuukka Rask | .963 |
Category | Ottawa | Boston | ||
# | Rank | # | Rank | |
Goals For | 2.51 | 22nd | 2.83 | 13th |
Goals Against | 2.56 | 10th | 2.55 | 9th |
Score and venue adjusted Corsi % | 48.41% | 22nd | 55.23% | 1st |
Event, Score and venue adjusted Fenwick % | 48.64% | 23rd | 55.42% | 1st |
Shots For | 30.0 | 17th | 33.2 | 2nd |
Shots Against | 30.1 | 15th | 26.8 | 2nd |