Game 29 preview: Senators @ Bruins

The Sens go down to Beantown for a matinee game

Ottawa goes in to Boston, a place they've had trouble winning in over the past few seasons. Milan Michalek is still out, along with Chris Neil and Marc Methot. Patrick Wiercioch comes in for Chris Phillips, "a coaches decision". Lehner gets his first start in two weeks after missing some time on IR.

No skate this morning, so here's the best guess at the lines:

MacArthur - Turris - Stone
Hoffman - Zibanejad - Ryan
Legwand - Smith - Greening
Condra - Lazar - Chiasson
Cowen - Karlsson
Wiercioch - Ceci
Borowiecki - Gryba
Lehner (starter)
Anderson

Some notes for tonight:

  • Chris Phillips out as "a coaches decision"? Let the rampant speculation begin!
  • Can Cameron get his first win as head coach today? Figure it's got to come this week at some point.
  • Boston has struggled this season, but I don't think anyone believes it will last. Hopefully it lasts at least one more game though.
  • Like, is Phillips actually being benched? I'm shocked.
  • Mika Zibanejad's point streak came to an end last game, maybe he'll get a new one started today.
  • Does last season's trend of terrible start to afternoon games continue today? It certainly did last week in Pittsburgh.
  • How will Lehner look today after 2 weeks of not playing, with some time on IR? Historically he's been pretty good against Boston, but he did lose the last one.

Here are some stats for the two teams tonight. All stats are from NHL.com except Corsi and Fenwick are from naturalstattrick.com.

Category Ottawa Boston
Player # Player #
Goals Clarke MacArthur 9 Brad Marchand 8
Assists Erik Karlsson 13 Patrice Bergeron 15
Points Erik Karlsson 20 Patrice Bergeron 20
Shots Erik Karlsson 110 Patrice Bergeron 83
Average Ice time Erik Karlsson 27:38 Dennis Seidenberg 22:20

Category Ottawa Boston
# Rank # Rank
Goals For 2.54 20th 2.48 22nd
Goals Against 2.75 18th 2.59 14th
Corsi % 48.25% 24th 52.88% 4th
Fenwick % 45.97% 28th 51.69% 10th
Shots For 29.0 23rd 30.0 17th
Shots Against 34.5 29th 29.1 14th

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