Ottawa Senators Prepare For Crucial Rematch In Tampa Without Two Of Their Top Three Centers

For the second consecutive game, the Ottawa Senators will face the Tampa Bay Lightning for a crucial matchup at Amalie Arena (7 pm RDS, TSN5).

Not much went right for the Senators in a 4-3 loss in Tuesday night’s opener. With Linus Ullmark starting for the first time in 19 games, the Senators coughed up a crucial two points to their division rival. Not only did they lose the game, they lost Shane Pinto to injury, and said goodbye to their five-game winning streak.

With Josh Norris already out of the lineup, the Senators had planned to lean heavily on Pinto to pick up the slack. But Pinto suffered an upper-body injury in a light but awkward collision on the end boards.

But here’s the good news for Sens fans. Head coach Travis Green told TSN 1200 radio that while Pinto won’t play on Thursday night, but he hasn’t been ruled out for Saturday as the Sens face the Florida Panthers in Sunrise. After that game, the Sens get two weeks off to heal up while the NHL takes its 4 Nations Faceoff experiment for a test drive.

Because of the injuries, the line combinations at practice today suddenly look like they were drawn from a bingo machine.

With two key forwards out of the lineup, you might think Green would lean more heavily on Drake Batherson, his second leading scorer. Instead, in an attempt to spread out the offence, Batherson is on the third line with two guys who started the year in Belleville.

Green does have Giroux as an option at centre, where the veteran has played most of his career. He’s also the NHL leader in faceoff win percentage (among players with more than 50 faceoffs taken).

Also surprising was Green’s choice of starter in goal. Green announced that Anton Forsberg will start, even though Linus Ullmark is apparently healthy and rested.

For Tampa, head coach Jon Cooper told the Tampa media on Thursday that former Senator Nick Paul will be back in the lineup after leaving Tuesday’s game early. Cooper also says that Anthony Cirelli, who played on Tuesday and is scheduled to play for Team Canada next week, won’t play against the Senators for undisclosed reasons.

Had the Senators taken won the opener in Tampa, they would have had a chance on Thursday to put the Bolts eight points in their rear view mirror. Now the goal in this one is to keep Tampa from drawing even in the standings with the Lightning holding two games in hand.

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