Ottawa's Claude Giroux faces the team he used to play for, while the new Flyers' head coach, Rick Tocchet, coaches the team he used to play for.
The Senators are back in action on Thursday night, hoping to build off the comeback and regulation point they earned against the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday. The Senators are off to a 2-4-1 start to the season and will host the Philadelphia Flyers (3-2-1), who have won their last two games in a row.
Philly Connections
This game will close out a four-game home stand for the Sens, and whenever they meet the Flyers, one of the top storylines is, inevitably, “Claude Giroux Faces Old Teammates.”
Giroux played exactly 1000 games in Philadelphia, but as he begins his fourth season in Ottawa, most of his former Flyers teammates have also moved on. Of the players on this year’s Philadelphia roster, only three were regular (more than 30 games played) teammates in Giroux's last season as a Flyer: Travis Konecny, Sean Couturier, and Travis Sanheim.
"It's always gonna be special playing against Philly," Giroux said. "I played a lot of years there, and there's not a lot of players left from when I played there, but with the organization and Danny Briere being the GM, it's always special to play them."
When Giroux was an NHL rookie, his mentor was Briere, who not only showed him the obligatory brotherly love but also let him live at his place in the early days.
The Flyers are also on their fourth head coach since Giroux left town. Alain Vigneault was behind the bench for Giroux's final game. He was replaced the following season by John Tortorella, and when Torts was fired last spring, former Senator Brad Shaw closed out their season.
The new man in Philly is now Rick Tocchet, who had spent the previous two and a half seasons in Vancouver.
His hiring in May was a homecoming of sorts for Tocchet – a happy-to-fight-you Flyers' star of the 1980s. He and Dave Poulin were two of the Flyers' best players back in those days, teammates for six seasons. Poulin is now Ottawa's Senior Vice-President of Hockey Operations and GM Steve Staios' right-hand man.
Line Combinations
The Senators will go with mostly the same roster and line combinations as they did on Tuesday. The one exception is goaltender Leevi Merilainen. He was recalled from Belleville on Thursday morning, with Mads Sogaard returning to the B-Sens.
Merilainen played in two games for Belleville this week, facing a combined total of 68 shots. His first game was on Sunday in a 5-3 loss to the Syracuse Crunch. On Wednesday night, he earned his first pro victory of the season, stopping 26 of 28 shots in the Senators’ 6-2 win in Laval.
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Ottawa's Projected Lines (Subject to Change)
Stutzle-Cozens-Batherson
Amadio-Pinto-Giroux
Cousins-Greig-Perron
Lycksell-Eller-Zetterlund
Sanderson-Zub
Chabot-Jensen
Kleven-Matinpalo
Ullmark
Merilainen
Philadelphia:
Tippett-Couturier-Konecny
Foerster-Cates-Brink
Zegras-Dvorak-Michkov
Grebenkin-Abols-Hathaway
York-Sanheim
Seeler-Drysdale
Zamula-Juulsen
Vladar
Ersson
The Stat Pack
The game marks an opportunity for both teams to figure themselves out on special teams. The Flyers have the 25th-best power play at 15.8 percent, while the Senators have the worst penalty kill at 57 percent. So something's gotta give.
The Sens would also like to pare down their atrocious 4.71 goals against average. They're the only team in the NHL that's given up over 30 goals already (33). Here's the full tale of the tape:
Philadelphia Flyers (3-2-1)
Goals per Game 3.00
Goals Against per Game 2.67
Shots per Game 21.7
Shots Against per Game 25.5
Power Play % 15.8
Penalty Kill % 83.3
Ottawa Senators (2-4-1)
Goals per Game 3.00
Goals Against per Game 4.71
Shots per Game 29.6
Shots Against per Game 26.6
Power Play % 26.1
Penalty Kill % 57.7
Audio/TV Options:
Face off is at 7 pm.
Audio: TSN1200.ca or AM 1200 in Ottawa
TV: RDS2, TSN5
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Senators Walk The Early Season Fine Line Between Disaster And Success
Tkachuk Has Successful Thumb Surgery And Will Miss 6-8 Weeks
Senators Lose Sebrango, Claimed Off Waivers By Florida
An Early Glance At The Senators' Goaltending Pipeline