GAME DAY: Florida Panthers @ Ottawa Senators - 7:00pm ET - Sat. Jan. 9th, 2010

The Ottawa Senators (22-18-4, 48 points, 3rd in the Northeast) return home to host the Forida Panthers (17-20-7, 41 points, 4th in the Southeast) on Saturday night at Scotiabank Place in Kanata.

Game Coverage:
- TV: CBC, FS-F
- Radio: Team 1200
- Web: check http://www.atdhe.net and http://www.justin.tv

Latest updates:
- Milan Michalek will miss a few games with an upper body injury
- Z. Smith and M. St. Pierre have been called up from Bingo

Team Lineups:
Ottawa Senators: http://www.dailyfaceoff.com/team-lineups/ottawa-senators-team-lineup
Florida Panthers: http://www.dailyfaceoff.com/team-lineups/florida-panthers-team-lineup

TSN's Ice Chips:

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

Ottawa Senators:

Milan Michalek (upper-body) is out indefinitely. The Sens have recalled Zack Smith and Martin St. Pierre from the AHL. - TSN

Projected lines vs the Panthers (total guess by me):

Forwards:
Kovalev - Fisher - Shannon
M. St. Pierre - Regin - Foligno
Cheechoo - Kelly - Neil
Ruutu - Z. Smith - Winchester

Defencemen:
Phillips - Volchenkov
Kuba - Karlsson
Picard - Carkner

Goaltenders:
Leclaire
Elliott

Healthy scratches:
- Campoli, Donovan (???)

Injuries:
- Jason Spezza (torn right MCL, out 6-8 weeks)
- Daniel Alfredsson (separated left shoulder, expected to miss 4-6 weeks)
- Milan Michalek (upper body injury, out indefinitely, will miss Saturday's game vs the Panthers)

Florida Panthers:

David Booth isn't with the Panthers on their three-game road trip through Canada. Since being knocked out by Philadelphia's Mike Richards on Oct. 24, Booth is now training at Michigan State and working with a skating coach. Booth is expected to return to the ice this season, although no timeline is being offered because of the severity of the injury. - Miami Herald

Projected lineup vs the Sens:

Forwards:
Frolik - Weiss - Horton
Stillman - Reinprecht - Olesz
Campbell - Moore - Dvorak
Dreskovich - Kreps - Tarnasky

Defencemen:
Garrison - McCabe
Ballard - Leopold
Allen - Seidenberg

Goaltenders:
Vokoun
Clemmenson

Injuries:
- David Booth (concussion, on IR, out indefinitely)
- Kenndal McArdle (shoulder/arm, on IR)
- Dmitry Kulikov (knee, on IR)

Game Day Previews:

OttawaSenators.com Game Day Preview:

Source: http://senators.nhl.com/club/preview.htm?id=2009020664

NHL.com Game Day Preview:

Source: http://www.nhl.com/ice/preview.htm?id=2009020664

Sportsnet.ca Game Day Preview:

Source: http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/scores/20100109/Fla@Ott/story

ESPN Game Day Preview:

Source: http://scores.espn.go.com/nhl/preview?gameId=300109014

ESPN Stats Comparison:



Media Links:
- Cory Clouston post-practice presser from Friday: http://bit.ly/5hZaly
- Sens recall Z. Smith and M. St. Pierre from Bingo: http://senators.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=512900
- SensTV On-line: http://senators.nhl.tv/team/console.jsp
- Official Twitter of the Ottawa Senators: http://twitter.com/NHL_Sens

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GO SENS GO!!!

Let the mayhem begin.

This is a MUST win. MUST.

No idea what the lines will look like. Both Z. Smith and M. St. Pierre are "centers" but I assume they can play wing just as easily. And if they are both in as Clouston suggested, someone else has to come out. I assume Donovan?

shabbs wrote:No idea what the lines will look like. Both Z. Smith and M. St. Pierre are "centers" but I assume they can play wing just as easily. And if they are both in as Clouston suggested, someone else has to come out. I assume Donovan?

I think Donovan as well.

SpezDispenser wrote:

shabbs wrote:No idea what the lines will look like. Both Z. Smith and M. St. Pierre are "centers" but I assume they can play wing just as easily. And if they are both in as Clouston suggested, someone else has to come out. I assume Donovan?

I think Donovan as well.

Why Donovan? Because he had a good game? Nice.

SeawaySensFan wrote:
Why Donovan? Because he had a good game? Nice.

I dunno, he missed a bunch of time and possibly isn't up to speed yet. He also seems a little redundant for this current incarnation of the Sens. We have dudes who can hit, now we need some skill.

But...who knows?

SeawaySensFan wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:

shabbs wrote:No idea what the lines will look like. Both Z. Smith and M. St. Pierre are "centers" but I assume they can play wing just as easily. And if they are both in as Clouston suggested, someone else has to come out. I assume Donovan?

I think Donovan as well.

Why Donovan? Because he had a good game? Nice.

Nah.. no rhyme or reason, just guessing. Was also thinking Winch... but who knows. If anyone's banged up, maybe they'll take a seat.

Get your Twitter on!

http://twitter.com/GMHockey/status/7542024051

Game Day!!!

GO SENS GO!!!

Donovan really isn't a "banger". He skates really fast (or used to) and backchecks/forechecks. He may hit a little more than Chris Kelly, but he's not a Chris Neil by any stretch.

Either Donovan or Winchester is fine with me, but why is St. Pierre -- a tiny forward with skill -- on the 4th line? Put players in a position where they can succeed. Why not just bring up the top line from Bingo and install them as our third line? Sit Donovan, Winchester and Cheechoo.

Go Sens Go!!!!!!!!!!!

He might start the game on one line and finish on another.

wprager wrote:Donovan really isn't a "banger". He skates really fast (or used to) and backchecks/forechecks. He may hit a little more than Chris Kelly, but he's not a Chris Neil by any stretch.

Either Donovan or Winchester is fine with me, but why is St. Pierre -- a tiny forward with skill -- on the 4th line? Put players in a position where they can succeed. Why not just bring up the top line from Bingo and install them as our third line? Sit Donovan, Winchester and Cheechoo.

Those line combos were just me guessing. We'll see what they look like at practice today. If he's gonna play center, do you want to bump Kelly down to the 4th? Or put him at wing on the 3rd with Kelly and Cheechoo and re-unite the Ruutu/Winch/Neil line?

shabbs wrote:

wprager wrote:Donovan really isn't a "banger". He skates really fast (or used to) and backchecks/forechecks. He may hit a little more than Chris Kelly, but he's not a Chris Neil by any stretch.

Either Donovan or Winchester is fine with me, but why is St. Pierre -- a tiny forward with skill -- on the 4th line? Put players in a position where they can succeed. Why not just bring up the top line from Bingo and install them as our third line? Sit Donovan, Winchester and Cheechoo.

Those line combos were just me guessing. We'll see what they look like at practice today.

Ah, didn't know that.

Still, what about my idea? I always wanted a third line where we could bring up potential scoring prospects and put them in scoring situations. Now that we have an entire top line out, why not bring up the top line from Bingo. They'd already have chemistry, they wouldn't be put in a position where there is too much expected from them (3rd line), and they might actually help the team.

It would only be for a couple of games (I don't think our cap could take any more than that unless we apply for some relief).

Speaking of which, can a team apply for cap relief from the accumulation of man-games lost? We have:

Leclaire - 4 weeks
Alfredsson - 5 weeks
Spezza - 7 weeks
Volchenkov - 4 weeks
Donovan - 5 weeks
Neil - 3 weeks
Kuba - 3 weeks
(OK, I'm really guesstimating on a couple of those)

Plus all the smaller injuries.