Silver Nuggets: Regin, Shannon scratched; Leclaire starts
Here's your Battle of Ontario gameday edition of Ottawa Senators stories:
- Tonight's healthy scratches are Ryan Shannon and Peter Regin. Jesse Winchester will play centre on the third line, between Jonathan Cheechoo and Chris Neil. Personally, I think Regin has been playing quite well thus far (despite it not showing on the scoresheet), and I expect he'll be back in the lineup next game. (Twitter)
- Pascal Leclaire will start in net tonight, even though more than a few fans seem to think Brian Elliott should be there after a strong game Saturday. I'd say Leclaire is the right move -- until he gets Toskala bad, he's the team's starting goalie, with a much higher upside than Elliott.
- Speaking of Toskala bad, Vesa will be starting for the Leafs tonight. Starting to feel more optimistic? Turns out Toskala was 2-0-1 against the Sens last season with a .956 save percentage. Ouch. (Left Wing Lock)
- Sens/Leafs predictions at the Citizen, including Peter's take. Also, I don't know why it says Round One of the Battle of Ontario, because I do believe there was a certain 2-1 win earlier in the season. (Citizen)
- Key to tonight's game? "We want to get the crowd out of it early," says Mike Fisher, despite it being a home game. I guess the Sens do notice the amount of blue in the stands when they play the Leafs. (Citizen)
- Daniel Alfredsson says that it's unlikely he'll be asking to leave Ottawa to go to a Stanley Cup contender before he retires. Pretire #11! Pretire #11! (Slam)
- Getting to know Chris Kelly. (Citizen)
- Another Ottawa Senators Blog suggests that the trick to beating the Leafs is to score early and often. Seems like a fairly sound theory. (AOSB)