Ottawa Senators (6-6-1) at Montreal Canadiens (8-4-1) – November 6, 2010
Fresh off a victory in Buffalo on Friday, the Montreal Canadiens play host to
the Ottawa Senators tonight. This is the third time that the two teams
have met this season, and both times Montreal emerged the victor, by scores of
4-3 and 3-0. The Senators have redeemed themselves for their earlier
struggles, winning 4 of their last 5 games, and would like nothing more than to
close the distance between them and Montreal in the standings. Montreal
snapped a 2-game losing streak with their win against the Sabres and are looking
to start a winning streak of their own.
After another strong game in goal, don’t be surprised to see Carey Price
(7-4-1, 2.40 GAA, .911 SV%) in net again. But if he needs the rest, Alex
Auld (1-0-0, 1.00 GAA, .968 SV%) will be waiting in the wings to make a start.
Part of Ottawa’s turnaround success has been largely due to the stellar play of
Brian Elliott (6-4-0, 2.98 GAA, .907 SV%) who will likely be setting up in the
Ottawa crease tonight.
With 10 points each, Andrei Kostitsyn (6-4-10), Tomas Plekanec (5-5-10) and
Jeff Halpern (4-6-10) are tied for the team lead in scoring. Halpern, in
particular, is coming off an impressive game in Buffalo where he scored once and
marked two assists. With 2 goals in his last game, Benoit Pouliot (4-4-8)
is making his worth known, as well as creeping up on the team lead in goals and
points. Ottawa is unsurprisingly led by Daniel Alfredsson (6-7-13), Sergei
Gonchar (2-7-9) and Jason Spezza (2-7-9), with Spezza having missed 5 games with
a groin injury.
Despite the return of Andrei Markov, Montreal’s powerplay continues to fizzle
and is second last in the NHL with a success rate of 6.7%. Ottawa fares
significantly better at 17.4%. Montreal penalty-killing is ranked 6th,
killing 88.5% of their penalties while Ottawa has managed an 83.3% rate.
Tomas Plekanec is suffering from an illness, and was a late scratch last
night in Buffalo; he remains questionable for tonight’s game. Ottawa will
be without Filip Kuba (leg) and Milan Michalek (knee).
The game begins at 7:00 EST and can be seen on CBC and RDS.
This preview was written by Matt
Dilworth