Music: {allcanada} Senators to give Lehner first start of season

Thursday, February 28, 2013

{allcanada} Senators to give Lehner first start of season

BOSTON -- One year to the day since he recorded his first and only NHL shutout at TD Garden against the Boston Bruins, Ottawa goaltender Robin Lehner will get a chance to repeat that feat.

Lehner is scheduled to make his Senators season debut against the Bruins, coach Paul MacLean confirmed after his team's morning skate. This season with Binghamton of the American Hockey League, Lehner has posted a 2.12 goals-against average and .938 save percentage.

"Robin's had a very successful season in the American Hockey League and he's played very well in the National Hockey League last season when he played," MacLean said. "He played here and he played well. And those are a lot of the factors that go into it. The fact that he's played very well this year in the American League gives us a lot of confidence."

Lehner's shutout against the Bruins was part of a solid five NHL starts in 2011-12 that featured a 2.01 GAA and .935 save percentage. As for his success in Boston, Lehner didn't want to dwell too much on that performance last February.

"People have been asking me that question, but you know what? It's game to game," Lehner said. "I lost against these guys, too. They're very skilled and I have a lot of respect for them and we've just got to go out and do our best to try to get the two points."

Injured Senators goaltender Craig Anderson and forward Milan Michalek both skated with the team as they continued their respective attempts to return to game action.

Here's the Senators' projected lineup against the Bruins:

Jakob Silfverberg – Kyle Turris – Daniel Alfredsson

Colin Greening – Mika Zibanejad – Erik Condra

Dave Dziurzynski – Zack Smith – Chris Neil

Kaspars Daugavins – Peter Regin – Jim O'Brien

Andre Benoit – Chris Phillips

Marc Methot – Eric Gryba

Patrick Wiercioch – Sergei Gonchar

Robin Lehner

Ben Bishop

Healthy scratch: Mike Lundin

Injured: Milan Michalek, Jason Spezza, Erik Karlsson, Guillaume Latendresse, Jared Cowen, Craig Anderson, Derek Grant