Third try is the charm, right?
The Ottawa Senators try to get their first win of the season, but it won't be easy against the high-octane Washington Capitals in D.C. tonight. It will be our first real understanding of what it meant to allow Anton Volchenkov walk away from free agency, as he always seemed to be in his element when trying to contain Alex Ovechkin. Can a shutdown pairing of Sergei Gonchar and Chris Phillips hope to contain Ovechkin? And how effective will Matt Carkner and Chris Campoli be in shutting down the supporting staff on the Washington roster? And would Erik Karlsson and Brian Lee even have a chance of keeping a atom-aged forward line off the scoreboard, let alone an NHL-calibre team?
All this, and more. Tonight.
The teaser above outlined the changes on defence, but there's also a minor change up front, as Ryan Shannon steps in and Jesse Winchester gets to man the press box. Not sure why Winchester's the odd man out--it's not like it's the kind of benching that will wake the team up--but here's how the lines will probably look:
Milan Michalek - Jason Spezza - Daniel Alfredsson
Peter Regin - Mike Fisher - Alex Kovalev
Jarkko Ruutu - Chris Kelly - Chris Neil
Nick Foligno - Zack Smith - Ryan Shannon
Gonchar-Phillips
Carkner-Campoli
Karlsson-Lee
Pascal Leclaire will start once again.