Game 27 Preview and Open Thread: Ottawa Senators @ Calgary Flames

Well folks, it’s been almost a week since the Senators won a game and the kids down in Belleville haven’t had much better luck than their counterparts in Ottawa so forgive us if we’re itching for some action tonight after getting held off the Saturday night marquee. Nonetheless, the Ottawa Senators remain about where we projected them in the standings and we have some rookies playing outstanding hockey so who am I to complain? Bring on round five(?) of the battle of the Tkachuks, I say. Madness reigns!

Possible Lines and Pairings:

#Sens forward lines and D pairings for March 6’s practice in Calgary:

Tkachuk - Tierney - C. Brown
Paul - White - Dadonov
Stützle - Norris - Batherson
Dzingel - Anisimov - Watson
Peca

Chabot - Zaitsev
Reilly - Zub
Brannstrom - Gudbranson
Wolanin - J. Brown

— Sens Communications (@Media_Sens) March 6, 2021

Calgary rolled out this lineup last night.

Notes

• The Flames played Oilers in Edmonton last night so Ottawa gains some ground there. All the usual clichés apply: stay out of the box, don’t fall in to a hole early, manage the neutral zone. Based on restedness, Ottawa should have a chance.
• Looking at the heatmap from the last game, all of Calgary’s offence came from inside the faceoff dot to Matt Murray/Joey Daccord’s right. Suffice to say, Ottawa has to clean up that zone.
• As always, Ottawa’s fate tonight seems inextricably linked to whatever iteration of team goaltending we end up seeing. The saga continues.
• As happy as I feel to see Erik Brännström back in place of Braydon Coburn, the coach needs to split Bonestorm up from Erik Gudbranson. Guddy continues to drag down the nerd stats of every partner he has and while I don’t think it hurts Bonestorm in terms of overall development, it certainly couldn’t hurt to separate them. The problem remains who to pair with Gudbranson, as Artem Zub and Mike Reilly have found chemistry together while Thomas Chabot has history with Nikita Zaitsev, and Christian Wolanin and Josh Brown remain entrenched in the press box.
• Fans have to be stoked about that projected third line of rookies even if it means Brady getting bogged down in a defensive role with Connor Brown and Chris Tierney (just imagine swapping Brady and Nick Paul in their respective spots!). Every week the forward lines get a little bit closer to making this team look competitive./

Puck drops at 9:30 EST on TSN5, RDS, and TSN 1200