GAME DAY:Ottawa Senators 3 @ Montreal Canadiens 2 - 7:00pm ET - SAT. Nov. 6, 2010

The Matchup

The Senators (6-6-1) come in to the Bell Center Saturday night as winners of four of their last five games, temporarily moving them back in to the eighth playoff spot. The Canadiens (8-4-1) avoided their first three-game losing streak of the season last night against Buffalo and re-joined the league leaders near the top of the standings. The Senators will look to put a halt to their losing ways on Saturday nights and defeat the arch-rival Canadiens in front of a national audience.

The Offense

The Senators have dialed up their attack as of late, scoring 17 goals in their last five games. Alex Kovalev, Sergei Gonchar, Daniel Alfredsson, Jason Spezza and Peter Regin have all contributed to the recent success of the team, which is finally starting to show the kind of balanced scoring that was expected during the off season. However, with the likes of Mike Fisher, Nick Foligno, Milan Michalek and Erik Karlsson still not showing up regularly on the score sheet, this area remains a work in progress.

The Defense

It goes without saying in the NHL: the teams that can play good hockey without the puck are the teams that will usually win. David Hale, a career NHL journeyman, has brought a steadying influence to the third pairing with Erik Karlsson which has really helped stabilize the blue line. Clouston seems to be more comfortable with letting the third pairing play against different opponents rather than limiting their ice time based on match ups. Of note is that the Senators have played a far improved style of hockey in their recent stretch that has seen the team jump out to big leads by keeping opponent attacking opportunities to a minimum. However, there has been a problem with the team executing the game plan for 60 minutes as the Senators continue to be lackluster in the final frame of the game.

Special Teams

This has been the biggest area of improvement in the Senators' game. Their power play has finally come to life recently, fulfilling the preseason expectations. The Senators sit 15th (17.4%) in the league with the man advantage despite a disastrous start to the season. On the flip side, the Senators penalty kill has fallen out of the top 10 down to 16th (83.3%). The one saving grace for the penalty kill's foibles lately is that the Canadiens' power play has been all sorts of awful. It currently sits at 6.7% which is good for an underwhelming 29th place in the league. However, with power play ace Andrei Markov back from injury and the huge shot of P.K. Subban, the Senators will have their hands full on the penalty kill.

Goaltending

The Senators' goaltending troubles have taken a back seat lately thanks to the hot play of Elliott who has been a factor in the last five games (with the exception of the horrendous Boston game last Saturday). His save percentage has been in elite territory recently thanks to his ability to eliminate the "bad goal" which had plagued him considerably last season.

Injury Report

Ottawa Senators: Filip Kuba (unlikely to play, recovering from broken fibula), Milan Michalek (unlikely to play, swollen knee), Daniel Alfredsson (game-time decision, unknown)

Montreal Canadiens: Tomas Plekanec (game-time decision, flu)

Watch/Listen

CBC HD (national game)
RDS HD
Team 1200 Ottawa
atdhe.net
cbcsports.ca
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p2p4u.net

Anything less than a slaughter...

PKC wrote:I figured since no one else has set one up...

Where's the rest of it?

My kid got the pee-wee C house league version of the Gordie Howe hat-trick: a goal, an assist and a minor. He leads his team with 8 PIMs.

According to www.leftwinglock.com (a solid site specializing in Starting goalies), Elliott and Auld are the probably starters.

Fihser is not skating at pre-game practice - no word as to why.

Bass Destruction wrote:According to www.leftwinglock.com (a solid site specializing in Starting goalies), Elliott and Auld are the probably starters.

I doubt Auld starts.no way actually.

Price starts for the Habs.

Fisher is not at the pre-skate - I suspect he won't go tonight. Z. Smith was recalled on an emergency basis.

Elliott should get the start for the Sens.

wprager wrote:

PKC wrote:I figured since no one else has set one up...

Where's the rest of it?

My kid got the pee-wee C house league version of the Gordie Howe hat-trick: a goal, an assist and a minor. He leads his team with 8 PIMs.

Sorry, I wasn't planning on doing it, but no one else was able to. It's pretty bland, but it'll do for now, I guess.

PKC wrote:
Sorry, I wasn't planning on doing it, but no one else was able to. It's pretty bland, but it'll do for now, I guess.

Thanks for doing it!

SpezDispenser wrote:

PKC wrote:
Sorry, I wasn't planning on doing it, but no one else was able to. It's pretty bland, but it'll do for now, I guess.

Thanks for doing it!

The next one I do will be a lot better. I'm actually in the middle of formatting my computer and so I didn't have Photoshop installed or I would have done some cool image manipulation for the GDT. Next time...

Elliott starts for the Sens. No line-up changes for the Sens. Fish is good to go!

nice GDT. I didn't know about the Sens saturday struggles. That was an interesting story. I wonder why we struggle on Saturday's? Any ideas?

Straight Shooter wrote:nice GDT. I didn't know about the Sens saturday struggles. That was an interesting story. I wonder why we struggle on Saturday's? Any ideas?

Too much paaaaaaaar-tay-ing on Fridays!!! Ahhhh yeeeahhhh!

Nice GDT, PKC, I was just PYL, FYI.