With a five-game losing slide and two regulars absent from practice, Travis Green shuffled his deck again on Sunday.
When you're in the middle of a five-game losing skid, you tend to throw everything at the wall with the hope that something sticks.
As the Senators prepared for a visit from the Calgary Flames on Monday night, both Artem Zub and Zack MacEwen were absent from Sunday's practice. So for the second straight skate, head coach Travis Green moved around a lot of his chess pieces.
Here's how it looked:
Tkachuk-Stützle-Gaudette
Giroux-Norris-Batherson
Greig-Pinto-Cousins
Amadio-Ostapchuk-Perron
Sanderson-Hamonic
Chabot-JBD
Kleven-Jensen
After starting Saturday night with Brady Tkachuk, both Shane Pinto and Ridly Greig return to the third line, now with Nick Cousins, although you could talk me into that now being the fourth line. Zack Ostpachuk has been recalled to take MacEwen's spot on the roster for now. Ostapchuk will centre Michael Amadio and David Perron.
Adam Gaudette, who has eight goals, is finally going to get some looks with some top players five-on-five. He'll play on a line with Tkachuk, who's been reunited with Tim Stutzle. Josh Norris is back between Claude Giroux and Drake Batherson.
The blue line is dramatically different. Jake Sanderson will be paired with Travis Hamonic, a pairing that did not serve Sanderson well the last time Zub got hurt. Thomas Chabot is with Jacob Bernard-Docker and Tyler Kleven gets a shot with Nick Jensen.
It's certainly possible these line combos could change again before tomorrow, particularly if Zub and MacEwen are available.