GAME DAY: Ottawa Senators @ Calgary Flames - 10:00pm Dec. 27th, 2008

The Sens head west after losing their opening game of their longest road trip this season 6-4 in Philly. This will be a tough road trip and will surely be a test of the Sens' mettle. This could be a make or break trip for the Sens and a poor showing will surely put pressure on Murray to make some moves.

From TSN's Ice Chips:

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/feature/?id=11009

Captian Daniel Alfredsson (upper body) returned to action Tuesday against the Flyers, as did Dany Heatley (flu), who scored twice. Anton Volchenkov left the game in the opening minute of the first period after hitting the boards hard. He did not return. - TSN

Friday's Practice Lines

Forwards:
Heatley - Spezza - Kelly
Ruttu - Fisher - Alfredsson
Vermette - McAmmond - Neil
Donovan - Bass - Zubov

Defence:
Phillips - Picard
Bell - Smith
Schubert - Lee

Lee has been recalled to fill-in for Volchie who's out with a facial laceration. Kuba is out for tonight as well.

Auld and Kiprusoff are listed as probable starters for the Sens and Flames. Interesting note - Kiprusoff has never lost to the Sens. He's 3-0-0 lifetime against them.

The game is on CBC (HD), NHLN-US.

If it's anything like on NHL2K9 with my kid playing the Sens, they'll win 6-2. Of course he's still playing with Meszaros in the lineup, but he'd converted Schubert to centre and he's winning all the face offs.

Saturday in HD and not against the Leafs - pretty exciting.

Hayden wrote:Saturday in HD and not against the Leafs - pretty exciting.

I'll be surprised if it's actually HD. I bet it's just widescreen.

So what will the final score be? I am thinking 5-2 for the Flames. I want to be optimistic but it is getting harder these days.

Web site goaliepost.com reporting that Auld is firm and Kipper is likely.

http://goaliepost.com/

I think you will see Auld play well tonight. I think he is due to fall back into his tight game groove.

shabbs wrote:

Hayden wrote:Saturday in HD and not against the Leafs - pretty exciting.

I'll be surprised if it's actually HD. I bet it's just widescreen.

CBC keeps a truck for the West games and this week Ottawa/Calgary is their National game. Mind you, the quality is typically not as good as the TO games, but it should still be HD.

wprager wrote:

shabbs wrote:

Hayden wrote:Saturday in HD and not against the Leafs - pretty exciting.

I'll be surprised if it's actually HD. I bet it's just widescreen.

CBC keeps a truck for the West games and this week Ottawa/Calgary is their National game. Mind you, the quality is typically not as good as the TO games, but it should still be HD.

True. I guess we'll see. It always seems to be hit and miss, and that could be anything - issues with the HD truck etc...

6 natural centres playing tonight - that's a different approach.

Hayden wrote:6 natural centres playing tonight - that's a different approach.

7, counting Schubert

That game's got a few interesting kinks in it even without changing people's positions. For example, none of the Islanders players have names. You've got Center, Left Wing, Right Wing and so on. Not sure if it was just a glitch since we only played Islanders once, so far. Also, when the defensive pairings come out they call them lines -- "The Phillips line comes out".

As for the Sens game tonight, I'm hoping they take a look at how Iginla works every shift and try to emulate that. They've got the horses to make this work, as long as Auld plays better than his last two outings and the Lee-Schubert pairing is not out there more than 10-12 minutes.

Foligno is now listed on the second line (updated IceChips). Bass appears to be the odd man out:

Heatley - Spezza - Kelly
Foligno - Fisher - Alfredsson
Vermette - Zubov - Donovan
Ruutu - McAmmond - Neil

Updated lines as per TSN's Ice Chips...

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/feature/?id=11009

Calgary:

Curtis Glencross skated with the team but is not quite ready to return. - TSN

Projected Lines

Forwards:
Cammalleri - Lombardi - Iginla
Bertuzzi - Langkow - Bourque
Sutter - Conroy - Moss
Nystrom - Boyd - Roy

Defence:
Regehr - Aucoin
Pardy - Phaneuf
Giordano - Sarich

Goaltender:
Kiprusoff
McElhinney

Ottawa:

Anton Volchenkov is out of tonight's lineup with an upper body injury.
He left Tuesday's game against the Flyers in the opening minute of the
first period after hitting the boards hard. - TSN

Projected Lines vs. Calgary

Forwards:
Heatley - Spezza - Kelly
Foligno - Fisher - Alfredsson
Vermette - Zubov - Donovan
Ruutu - McAmmond - Neil

Defence:
Picard - Phillips
Bell - Smith
Schubert - Lee

I've had issues using the Quick Reply today. I write some text, the hit Send and it just gets me to an empty reply box again. It's happened twice today.

Anyhow, what I said (before the post got "lost") was:

Just what is up with Volchenkov? I thought shoulder/neck for sure, maybe even a broken collarbone, when he could not get up/ I did not see any blood on the ice, and you'd think "facial lacerations" that keep you out of the lineup for three games would leave a little.

Look like Alfie is out... Heater was taking the ceremonial face-off...

EDIT: Alfie is in. Why was he not taking the face-off? His ties to Calgary?