Silver Nuggets: Season finally starts; Melnyk smells success

The day is finally here! While some might think that we are in hell now, today is full of great hope and anticipation for most of us. A lot of us may expect the Senators to struggle this year, but it is still easy to be excited for the opening game of the season.

So who is playing tonight? While Bruce Garrioch commented yesterday that David Rundblad could play instead of Brian Lee, it turns out Paul MacLean has changed his mind. The lines in practice were Michalek-Spezza-Filatov, Greening-Zibanejad-Alfredsson, Foligno-Da Costa-Neil, Condra-Smith-Butler. The defensive pairings were Cowen-Gonchar, Phillips-Lee and Kuba-Karlsson.

What does everyone think of this? I like the forward lines a lot. There is some skill on all four lines and any of them could be scoring threats. The defensive pairings could have promise too, with no clear cut number one pairing, and any of them could get the most minutes on a given night.

Paul MacLean also adds that he will consider changes for tomorrow. With a game against Toronto and the Chris Neil hit from the pre-season in mind, I would imagine Konopka returns tomorrow to goon it up.

Links follow after the jump.

• Bryan Murray expects the Senators to be competitive, and feels adding another piece or two will have the Senators contending again before his contract expires. (Ottawa Citizen)
• Mika Zibanejad will make his NHL debut tonight and have a dream come true in a game that will feature a whopping ten Swedish players. (Ottawa Sun, Ottawa Citizen)
• The Senators don't want to just replicate Detroit's count of Swedish passport holders, they want to play the 'Detroit way'. I just love this and would love to see a team built on puck possession and skill. Winning is important but so is being entertaining. Whether Ottawa will obtain the talent to play like Detroit remains to be seen. (Ottawa Citizen)
• From 1 to 101, a season preview of the Ottawa Senators. I naturally scrolled down to #65 right away. (The 6th Sens)
• The Senators prediction panel is back and two out of the eight predict a Senators win. Ian Mendes and Graeme Nichols are the two optimistic guys. Our Peter predicts a 5-2 Detroit win. (Senators Extra)
• The Senators lost a lot of players last year, but did they really lose a lot of value? Chris Kelly, Mike Fisher, Alex Kovalev, Jarkko Ruutu and Chris Campoli averaged a total of 9 goals in 55 games. Can Nikita Filatov replace a good portion of that? I love you Nikita! (Welcome To Your Karlsson Years)
• Chris Phillips and Jason Spezza both feel this training camp has been very hard, with Paul MacLean's emphasis on skating. Everyone's feeling good and optimistic, including me. Ah opening night, how I love thee. (Ottawa Senators)
• Eugene Melnyk's new company is developing a sexual dysfunction medicine delivered through a nasal spray. I am just going to leave it that. (Financial Post)