The Ottawa Senators continue their preseason with the second of two neutral-site exhibition games in Quebec City on Tuesday night. After a 2-0 victory over the New Jersey Devils on Sunday, this time the Sens face the Montreal Canadiens. This game will have English TV coverage on TSN2, RDS, and TSN5 at 7 pm.
Part of the reason the Senators are in Quebec City for these games is to build a fan base with people who lost their beloved Nordiques 30 years ago. It will be interesting to see where the crowd's allegiances lie.
The Habs are disliked by many in Quebec City, but they've likely won over some of the under-35 crowd who, other than history books or old highlights, have had no exposure to the Nordiques or the rivalry. Given that Montreal is two hours closer to Quebec City than Ottawa, it's also likely that a few more Montrealers bought tickets and made the trip.
The Senators' lines this morning suggest that they'll go with a roster on Tuesday split right down the middle between vets and hopefuls, though morning skates in the preseason aren't always reliable predictors of what we'll actually see at game time. But let's work with what we have.
The top six forwards – Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stutzle, Claude Giroux, Ridly Greig, Shane Pinto, and Michael Amadio – are all locked in and tuning up for opening night. Meanwhile, Olle Lycksell, Stephen Haliday, Arthur Kaliyev, Zack MacEwen, Jan Jenik, and Hayden Hodgson are hoping to squeeze onto the NHL roster as the 13th man or an injury replacement.
On the back end, Carter Yakemchuk, Nik Matinpalo, Donovan Sebrango, and Jordan Spence continue to try to impress. Spence will be on the team, but Travis Green hasn't had many opportunities to evaluate him in live fire action, so he's still trying to determine where he fits in as Spence learns the team's systems.
Sens lines this morning, as reported by the Coming in Hot podcast.
Tkachuk - Stützle - Giroux
Greig - Pinto - Amadio
Lycksell - Halliday - Kaliyev
MacEwen- Jenik - Hodgson
Sanderson - Zub
Sebrango - Spence
Yakemchuk - Matinpalo
Thomson
Merilainen
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