Game Day Notes: Sens @ Stars

Who's in? Who's out? We've got details on tonight's Sens line-up, some thoughts from Drake Batherson on his first road trip and more before puck drop in Dallas.

Batherson's first NHL road trip

He played his first NHL game, scored his first NHL goal and now rookie Drake Batherson is on his first NHL road trip.
"Anytime you get to go on the road with the guys it's a great experience," shared Batherson. "I haven't gotten to know too many of the guys here yet so it will be great opportunity for some team bonding."
Batherson is no stranger to travel and has made many trips with his teams in the QMJHL and AHL but the luxury of travel in the NHL is certainly not lost on the 20-year-old.
"When I was playing Junior in Cape Breton our closest bus trip was 5 hours," Batherson said. "Jumping on a plane definitely feels a lot nicer than jumping on a bus and I'm excited to visit a lot of cities that I've never been to before."
As Batherson adjusts to life in the NHL off the ice, he continues to excel on it. After starting the season on fire in Belleville, his scoring ways have transfered over to the Senators and he's registered 5 points (2G, 3A) in his first 4 games played.
"I didn't really expect to score in my first game or anything," he said. "But I've been given the opportunity to play with some great players and they've been making some great plays which I've been able to capitalize on. So far, so good."

Projected Line-up

The Sens hit the ice in Dallas this morning and following the team's skate, head coach Guy Boucher passed along a few line-up updates for tonight.
"White is out for sure so McCormick is in," said Boucher. "We'll most probably go with 12 forwards and we'll see with Borowiecki after warm-up."
The coach also shared that Ben Harpur will return to action tonight after missing the past month with a back injury. Harpur has appeared in just 3 games this season and, despite being hampered with a lingering issue, was a a solid contributer on the backend to start the year.
"He's a gigantic man and has terrific reach," the coach about getting Harpur back. "It was too bad when he got injured because he was playing really well. If you remember those games, we were playing well defensively he definitely helped. He hasn't played in a long time so we don't want to put pressure on the guy to come out and be exactly what he was when he left but certainly he's going to bring a lot of what he is."
Hard to say how the projected line-up will look tonight but
here's what NHL.com has so far
...
Boedker - Duchene - Batherson
McCormick - Tkachuk - Stone
Dzingel - Tierney - Ryan
Paajarvi - Smith - Pyatt
Chabot - DeMelo
Lajoie - Ceci
Harpur - Jaros

In Goal

No surprise here, Craig Anderson (9-7-3) will get the start in goal tonight against the Stars as he looks to break out of his current 2-game losing skid. Anderson remains the busiest netminder in the league and leads the NHL in shot against with 703 (nearly 100 more than any other goalie).

Where to Watch

It's a 8 p.m. start in Dallas tonight so grab some buddies and head over to the Glue Pot Pub on Queen St. and where they'll be serving up $6 tall cans of Molson Canadian during the game.
If you're planning on keeping it in tonight you can also catch all the action on TSN5 and RDS which were voted as the best Sens broadcast in the business by yours truly.