GAME DAY #12: Sens @ Habs - 7:30pm EST - Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2015

October and EDT are behind us. November and night-time commutes are upon us. The Sens are floundering just above .500 and in 5th place in the Division. One point out of a Wildcard spot and just two ahead of Buffalo (I shouldn't even bring up the Leafs, but after their win over the previously hot Stars they are 6 points back -- a 3 game winning streak away).

The Sens were dealt a harsh blow when Mark Stone was suspended for a questionable hit on "legacy" rookie Landon Ferraro; while the suspension itself was a tough pill to swallow, the insult added to the injury was the league dismissing Zetterberg's lunging elbow to the Pageau's nose without so much as a minor penalty being called. While Stone sits out a couple of games, Hoffman and Lazar are back from sick bay and will return to their usual spots in the lineup. No updates on MacArthur -- I suspect he'll be gone quite a while.

Meanwhile the Habs, after that hicup of consecutive losses to the Canucks and Oilers (???!) have resumed their winning ways, even as Price has been placed on the IR. Apparently Price sustained his injury against the Oilers but he still served as backup in the Calgary game before being told to shut it down for a week. Rookie Condon is 4-0 to start his career (how long before Bell Centre faithful start throwing boxes of Trojans on the ice?) and it's up to the Sens to bring him back down to ice level.

GO SENS GO!!!

Maybe I should have named this the "Priceless" edition.

I'd be pretty pumped for playing them without Price, but our record against backups is not great, and then we're also missing arguably our best forward in Stone.  This will be an uphill battle.

I assume Ryan slides up to the top line with Turris and Hoffman (assuming he's back).

Is Hammond starting??

Ryan *should* slide up to the top line, he's been successful there in the short amount of top-line icetime that he was given, and he has scored in three straight games. May not quite be coming in hot, yet, but warming up. I also think they need to separate Ryan and Zibanejad as both were in need of a wake up call -- you just don't try to boost a dead battery with another one.

As far as I know Cameron has not named his starter as of yesterday. In fact it's almost like he made a point of saying that he had not yet decided. Conventional wisdom is that your #1 starts if he is not injured and it's not back-to-back games. So it was a little odd for him to say that. Hammond's last trip to Bell Centre wasn't all that memorable (lost first two games of the playoffs) so I see no reason to not go with Anderson.

Therefore it will probably be Hammond.

I thought I heard something about Hammond starting, but I think I must've dreamt it, as it makes no sense.

He's shown that he wants Ryan and zibanejad to be on a different line than turris, so I doubt he's up there. Lazar and Hoffman is what garrioch was hinting at as the starting top line tonight.

Having Hoffman back is awfully fortuitous with Stone suspended.

Here's hoping things get squirrely.

If there are more suspensions to come for the Sens, good God I hope they all come from tonight's game. Maybe Zack Smith can finish what Byfuglien started. I think I could stomach the Sens going 5 without #15.

tim1_2 wrote:Here's hoping things get squirrely.

And how!

I'm interested to see how Turris performs without Stone.

SeawaySensFan wrote:

tim1_2 wrote:Here's hoping things get squirrely.

And how!

Are you asking?

spader wrote:I'm interested to see how Turris performs without Stone.

I don't think 2 games would be enough to gel with someone else, or enough to draw an conclusion, to be honest.

You have to hope Turris can create some magic with Hoffman. It be nice to also see lazar show some upside.

I don't mind a line of puempel Zib and Ryan. That might be the line of the future going forwards for a few years so might as well get it going. Puempel is playing right? Please tell me he's playing...

Flo The Action wrote:You have to hope Turris can create some magic with Hoffman. It be nice to also see lazar show some upside.

I don't mind a line of puempel Zib and Ryan. That might be the line of the future going forwards for a few years so might as well get it going. Puempel is playing right? Please tell me he's playing...

They sent McCormick back and Stone is out, so of course he is playing.  Right now *everyone* (at forward) is playing that's eligible to play.