Game 4 Preview: Ottawa Senators @ Calgary Flames

After a good chunk of time off, the Senators continue their Western Canada road trip tonight to visit former Sens heartthrob Curtis Lazar and the Calgary Flames. Bruce Garrioch reports the team will likely go with 11 forwards and seven defencemen again, with Craig Anderson starting. Logan Brown and Johnny Oduya are confirmed to be out tonight, so it’s possible Christian Jaros comes out for Alex Formenton. Here are the projected lines and pairings, keeping all that in mind:

Ryan - Brassard - Stone

Smith - Turris - Dzingel

Hoffman - Pageau - Pyatt

Thompson - Burrows

Phaneuf - Borowiecki

Claesson - Ceci

Chabot - Wideman

Jaros

Anderson (starter)

Condon

Some thoughts before tonight’s game:

• Anderson gets his fourth consecutive start tonight, meaning Mike Condon will likely get his first action of the year tomorrow against Connor McDavid and the Oilers
• In addition to Lazar (if he plays), Jaromir Jagr will get a bunch of attention tonight since there were thoughts earlier in the offseason the Sens might sign him
• Have you heard Ottawa’s powerplay has gone 0-for-16?
• No team has ever gone to three shootouts to start a season before this year’s Sens
• That Ryan-Brassard-Stone trio have 52% of the 5v5 shot attempts, 5 even-strength goals for, and 0 against. That’s pretty good
• Small sample size alert, but Boro’s got 53% of the 5v5 shot attempts so far
• Let’s see if Chabot and Jaros can combine for more than 20 minutes tonight, or if Boucher will continue his strategy of “Don’t Play Rookies”/

And now for some stats for tonight (all stats from NHL.com, except for Corsi/Fenwick from NaturalStatTrick.com):

Team Stats

Player Stats