Music: {allcanada} SENATORS (0-0-0) at PREDATORS (0-0-0)

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

{allcanada} SENATORS (0-0-0) at PREDATORS (0-0-0)

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SENATORS (0-0-0) at PREDATORS (0-0-0)

TV: RDS2, TSN5, FS-TN

Thursday, October 9, 2014

8:00 PM ET

Season series: The Ottawa Senators and Nashville Predators split two games in 2013-14, with the Predators winning 4-3 in the most recent game on March 10 behind 34 saves from goalie Pekka Rinne. Senators forward David Legwand, who holds numerous franchise records for the Predators, including goals (210), assists (356) and points (566), will play for the first time against the team that selected him with the second pick in the 1998 NHL Draft, and with which he played his first 956 NHL games. The Predators traded Legwand to the Detroit Red Wings at the 2014 NHL Trade Deadline, receiving center Calle Jarnkrok in return. He signed with Ottawa as a free agent during the summer.

Senators team scope: As the Senators attempt to return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs after finishing five points out last season and 11th in the Eastern Conference, they want to improve on defense. Ottawa ranked 27th in the NHL last season in goals against per game at 3.15. Unfortunately for the Senators, they will begin the season without the services of Marc Methot, who ranked second among their defensemen in average time on ice at 21:45. Methot, who has a back injury, has not skated in a week and did not make the trip to Nashville. It appears Jared Cowen will skate on the top defense pair with 2012 Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson. While goalie Robin Lehner is expected to play more this season, coach Paul MacLean announced Wednesday that Craig Anderson would start in net. "He's the No. 1 goalie," MacLean told reporters after practice in Nashville. "It's the first game of the season." Left wing Colin Greening, right wing Erik Condra and defensemen Patrick Wiercioch are expected to be scratched.

Predators team scope: This game represents the first in Predators history coached by someone other than Barry Trotz. Peter Laviolette, who coached the Carolina Hurricanes to the Stanley Cup in 2006, takes over with a mandate to play a more offensive style, and he does so with a remade cast of forwards: James Neal, Mike Ribeiro, Derek Roy and Olli Jokinen among them. Neal and Ribeiro, who played on the same line when they were members of the Dallas Stars, look as if they will start the season on the top line with Gabriel Bourque at left wing. The Predators also are hopeful that young players Jarnkrok and Filip Forsberg, whom they expect to be on the roster for a full season, will make an impact. The Predators begin the season with three veteran forwards injured: Matt Cullen (upper body), Viktor Stalberg (lower body) and Mike Fisher (ruptured Achilles tendon). Stalberg practiced on Tuesday and could return soon. Fisher has begun skating, according to the Ottawa Sun, and expects to return in November.

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