Gaudette's demotion comes after he scored three more goals on the recent three-game western road trip
Ottawa Senators head coach Travis Green was in experiment mode this week. Green had two practices (without a game in between) that had dramatically different looks.
Tuesday's line combinations:
- Giroux-Stützle-Gaudette
- Tkachuk-Norris-Batherson
- Cousins-Pinto-Amadio
- Gregor-Ostapchuk-Greig
Wednesday's line combinations:
- Tkachuk-Norris-Batherson
- Greig-Stützle-Giroux
- Cousins-Pinto-Amadio
- Reinhardt-Gaudette-Gregor
Seeing Adam Gaudette drop back onto the fourth line was notable on Wednesday, as was Ridly Greig returning to the top six. At Thursday morning's availability, the only lineup info Green was willing to give was that Linus Ullmark would start in goal for the Senators.
Ultimately, Green went with his Wednesday setup but slid Gaudette to fourth-line right wing to make room for centre Zack Ostapchuk.
Gaudette had seen time in the top six in recent games and had three goals during the three-game road trip in California.
So what did Gaudette, with his 12 goals (second on the team), do to get demoted between Tuesday and Wednesday practice? And what did Greig, with his 2 goals, do to get promoted? We may never know. It might be something as simple as Green going with his gut.
Gaudette did have a bad turnover that springs to mind, but it was nothing compared to Greig's too many men penalty in the loss to the the LA Kings. And the goal totals speak for themselves.
In other lineup news, winger David Perron is still out with an upper-body injury, so he didn't suit up against Detroit, the team he played for the past two seasons. Ottawa's only other injury is to the guy Perron cross checked in the face last season. Artem Zub is out with a foot fracture.
The incident may be a distant memory now, but it certainly helped to amp up a decent rivalry between the two clubs.
