Goatender Mike Condon will start for the Ottawa, which will dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen. Condon played in 27 straight games before Andrew Hammond started in a 6-0 loss to the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday, the second straight game the Senators were shut out. Coach Guy Boucher has been using his fourth line for as little as five minutes per game recently. Boucher is planning to give some of his first- and second-line players extra shifts on the fourth line with Tommy Wingels and Chris Kelly. Boucher said he liked the way defenseman Fredrik Claesson, a scratch for the past three games, has played and wanted to get him back in the lineup. "I've been wanting to [dress seven defensemen] for a long time," Boucher said. "I like to do that. Today with Claesson being healthy, all our [defensemen] being healthy, no one I want to take out, gives me the possibility to do that." The Senators are in second place in the Atlantic Division, tied with the Toronto Maple Leafs with 60 points, but they have one more game remaining than Toronto. Boucher told the Ottawa Sun that goaltender Craig Anderson, who has not played since Dec. 5, could return as soon as Saturday, when the Senators host the New York Islanders. Anderson returned to the Senators on Jan. 30 after taking a leave of absence to be with his wife, Nicholle, who was having treatments for cancer.
