Game 6 Preview: Dallas Stars @ Ottawa Senators

The Senators look to win back-to-back games for the first time this season tonight against the Dallas Stars. The Sens should have the rest battle, since they’ll be off after this game until Saturday, while Dallas flew from Dallas on Saturday, and then play again tomorrow night against the Devils before returning home. That seems like a weird, short road trip to me, but OK.

Mark Stone wasn’t at the morning skate, but Guy Boucher said he will play tonight. Here are the projected lines, via friend-of-the-blog Bruce Garrioch:

And because Brucey G was nice enough to give them to us, here’s the Stars’ lines:

As always, some thoughts:

• Who’s the most beloved ex-Senator returning tonight? With Patrick Eaves now a member of the Ducks, the choices are Ben Bishop, Jason Spezza, and Marc Methot. Methot was probably the most universally beloved in his time with the Sens, but Spezza was the most talented.
• Speaking of which, will this be the last time Spezza plays in Ottawa? His contract’s up this year and his back has seen better days

• Two of the four defencemen tied for the league lead in goals will be in action in this game, with Maxime Lajoie pitted against John Klingberg
• Ben Harpur went from healthy scratch for four games to most ice time on the team (22:37) against the Kings. For what it’s worth, I thought he was passable against the Kings, with some good plays countering some awful time hemmed in his own zone. But I can’t for the life of me figure out why Boucher insists on keeping Thomas Chabot’s ice time down.
• With seven defencemen again today, I wonder if Christian Jaros and Chris Wideman will each get half as much ice time as the other five? What does Boucher have against guys named Chris?
• Dallas is clicking at over 50% on the powerplay, so maybe don’t take penalties?

• Game starts at 7:30 EST with TV coverage on TSN5, RDS2, and FoxSports SW

Stats (via NaturalStatTrick.com and NHL.com):