GAME DAY: Boston Bruins @ Ottawa Senators - 7:30pm ET - Mon. Dec. 21st, 2009

Under Construction -- more to come later today.

The Ottawa Senators (18-13-4, 40 points, 2nd in the Northeast) conclude their brief 2-day home stand against the Boston Bruins (16-11-7, 39 points, 3rd in the Northeast). The Bruins, who were supposed to be the Beast of the East at the start of the season have not lived up to expectations; they come to town riding a 4 game losing streak, after a 2-0 shut out loss to the Leafs. With the loss of 36-goal scorer Phil Kessel and significant injuries to key players the Bruins are 26th in the league in Goals per Game average and 22nd on the Power Play. The defensive side of their game continues to be strong, as they are 5th in the league in Goals Against and top in Penalty Kill situations.

The Sens are coming off a convincing win against an undermanned (and newly-equipped) Wild -- a game where rookies Mike Brodeur and Erik Karlsson got their first win and first goal, respectively. With their #1 Pascal Leclaire ready to go in Pittsburgh, this will likely be the last game with the big club for Brodeur before he returns to Bingo. Would you give him another start?

Carrie Underwood has attended the last two home games for the Sens (both wins). Will the streak continue on Monday?

Game Coverage:
- NESN (HD),SNET-E (HD)
- Radio: Team 1200
- Web: check http://www.atdhe.net and http://www.justin.tv

Team Lineups:
Ottawa Senators: http://www.dailyfaceoff.com/team-lineups/ottawa-senators-team-lineup
Minnesota Wild: http://www.dailyfaceoff.com/team-lineups/minnesota-wild-team-lineup

TSN's Ice Chips:

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

Ottawa Senators:
(still unchanged since Thursday)
Projected lines vs the Bruins (no changes from yesterday, except Elliott will likely get the start):

Forwards:
Michalek - Winchester - Alfredsson
Regin - Fisher - Kovalev
Ruutu - Kelly - Cheechoo
Campoli - Hennessey - Shannon

Defencemen:
Phillips - Volchenkov
Kuba - Karlsson
Picard - Carkner

Goaltenders:
Elliott
Brodeur

Healthy scratches:
- none

Injuries:
- Shean Donovan (knee, on IR, out indefinitely)
- Pascal Leclaire (broken jaw, expected back December 23rd)
- Chris Neil (knee, expected back December 23rd)
- Jason Spezza (knee, out 6-8 weeks)
- Nick Foligno (knee, expected to miss 2 weeks)

Boston Bruins

Projected Lines (from Saturday)

Forwards:
Sturm - Savard - Ryder
Paille - Bergeron - Recchi
Wheeler - Krejci - Bitz
Begin - Sobotka - Thornton

Defencemen:
Chara - Morris
Ference - Boychuk
Wozniewski - Hunwick

Goaltenders:
Rask
Thomas

Injuries:
- Milan Lucic (high ankle strain, 4 weeks)
- Mark Stuart (broken sternum, 4-6 weeks)
- Dennis Wideman (undisclosed, questionable for Monday)
- Derek Morris (undisclosed, questionable for Monday)

Game Day Previews:

OttawaSenators.com Game Day Preview:
Source: http://senators.nhl.com/club/preview.htm?id=2009020536

NHL.com Game Day Preview:
Source: http://www.nhl.com/ice/preview.htm?id=2009020536

Sportsnet.ca Game Day Preview:

Source: http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/scores/20091221/Bos@Ott/story

ESPN Game Day Preview:

Source: http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/preview?gameId=291221014

ESPN Stats Comparison:


Media Links:
- SensTV On-line: http://senators.nhl.tv/team/console.jsp
- Official Twitter of the Ottawa Senators: http://twitter.com/NHL_Sens
- Official Twitter of the Boston Bruins: http://twitter.com/NHLBruins

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GO SENS GO!!!

We were in a position to beat them the last time they were in town. Lets hope with this new found team game we can put it together this time.

wprager wrote:
Forwards:
Michalek - Winchester - Alfredsson
Regin - Fisher - Kovalev
Ruutu - Kelly - Cheechoo
Campoli - Hennessey - Shannon

I don't want anything to change those lines. I was all over Cheechoo for a bit because he wasn't keeping up with the others, but they've gelled nicely. Hopefully when we get the 3 injured back (minus the 7 million dollar man) they can make up the new 4th line.

Donovan-Foligno-Neil

looks pretty solid

Cap'n Clutch wrote:We were in a position to beat them the last time they were in town. Lets hope with this new found team game we can put it together this time.

The team we'll be icing is one of the best we can put together for a game against the Bruins. I expect a good showing. Imagine if we had that Foligno 3b line above? We'd be a very very tough team to beat (minus Kuba)

Bruins are slumping right now...hopefully the Sens don't take it for granted and use this to pick up another two points.

PKC wrote:Bruins are slumping right now...hopefully the Sens don't take it for granted and use this to pick up another two points.

That's what scares me. A wounded bear backed into a 5-game-losing-streak corner with Tim "Sens-killer" Thomas in goal.

They better not be taking the Bruins lightly or they will lose to them *again*!

I don't think this team has taken anybody lightly this eason. I saw the same effort every night.

wprager wrote:

PKC wrote:Bruins are slumping right now...hopefully the Sens don't take it for granted and use this to pick up another two points.

That's what scares me. A wounded bear backed into a 5-game-losing-streak corner with Tim "Sens-killer" Thomas in goal.

They better not be taking the Bruins lightly or they will lose to them *again*!

I don't have a great feeling about this game. Maybe another "equipment fire" or "food poisining incident"?

And as I said above, the lineup we're putting out there tomorrow is very well suited to handle the Bruins. 8 of the 9 players in our top-9 can pk, as well as 5 of the top-6 on D. Elliott got some much needed rest. The only problem we might run into is if two D hit the sin bin at the same time (and even then, I'm not overly worried about putting Karlsson out there for a 5-on-4) or that we might not be able to roll the 4th line (again, not too worried about it).

There just seems to be something about Boston that they have our number over the last few seasons. Here's hoping they can stick it to them and come out with the win Monday night.

First post updated with links to game previews and the ESPN side-by-side team comparison (always *my* favorite part, me being a stats whore and all).

P.S. The Sens website preview is simply a copy of the NHL.com one. THhere' saved you one click.

The Bruins (or, should I say Tim Thomas?) are 9-1 in their last 10 against the Sens. Thomas has won his last 9 starts against us, sporting a 1.66 GAA in the process. His style and ours definitely don't mesh.

On the other hand, Ottawa is 8-1-0 in their last 9 at home. Both of our losses against the Bruins this year have come in the shootout. In both games we scored 3 goals on TimThom in regulation (so imagine how good he was in the previous 7 to average 1.66).

It's definitely time for the tide to turn.

wprager wrote:First post updated with links to game previews and the ESPN side-by-side team comparison (always *my* favorite part, me being a stats whore and all).

Look at that Mike Brodeur kid. 1 GAA and .957 save percentage. Why don't we play that guy?

Lets hope the WAM line can ge WAMazing again tonight.