Game 2 Preview: Detroit Red Wings @ Ottawa Senators
Alex Formenton makes his season debut as the Sens head into the second game of the year.
After getting a well-earned point against the Caps on Thursday, the Red Wings come into town to try and take advantage of a depleted Senators defence corps.
With Erik Karlsson and Johnny Oduya both listed as day-to-day, Ottawa called up Ben Harpur, who missed Belleville’s season opener yesterday. Here’s how they lined up at this morning’s skate:
Some notes for tonight:
- Detroit won their season opener against the Minnesota Wild by a score of 4-2. Anthony Mantha had 3 (!) points while Mike Green had a 4 (!!!) point night.
- Expect Mantha to line up alongside with Dylan Larkin and Martin Frk tonight. The Wings bottom-six may be ‘woof’ worthy, but a top-six with those three and Tatar - Zetterberg - Nyquist is still pretty scary. Thankfully, the Mantha line received 3L minutes and for the Sens sake, I hope they do tonight as well.
- Meanwhile, without Nikolas Kronwall on the blueline, the Wings D corps looks very different. DeKeyser, Green, Trevor Daley, and Xavier Ouellet all played 20+ minutes on Thursday.
- Missing from the Wings lineup is dangerous forward Andreas Athanasiou. He’s off to skate in Switzerland as he waits for a new contract.
- Meanwhile, in Ottawa, Phaneuf - Ceci are back together due to Oduya’s injury. I hope that Mark Borowiecki and Chris Wideman can continue to positively impact the team like they did in Game 1.
- Guy Boucher’s also decided to reunite the Hoffman - Pageau - Pyatt line, given how effective they were last season. Expect them to match up against the Wings top-line.
- Alex Formenton will make his season debut and become the youngest Ottawa Senator in history. He’ll start with Nate Thompson and Alex Burrows, but I’d love to see him spend a couple shifts with Dzingel and Turris if possible. Zooooooooooooom. /
