Game Day Notes: Sens vs. Panthers

We've got the latest on the Sens' projected line-up, starting goaltender and more before our 7:30 p.m. puck drop at Canadian Tire Centre against the Panthers.

Projected Line-up

Some positive injury news to start things off today as Cody Ceci has been cleared to return to action tonight against the Panthers. Ceci was injured during the first period of the Sens' Western Canadian road trip in Vancouver last week and has missed the last 3 games as a result.
"We actually have seven healthy defencemen," said interim head coach Marc Crawford this morning. "So we're going to make our decision on which six will play this afternoon."
The coach also provided a brief update on Zack Smith who has been sidelined for the past 2 games with a nagging back injury. Smith didn't skate this morning and has been ruled out for tonight but Crawford shared that he could factor into the line-up on Saturday against Toronto if he's able to put together a few good practices before then.

Here's how the line rushes look at this morning's skate:
Tkachuk - Pageau - Veronneau
Duclair - Tierney - Boedker
Balcers - White - Ryan
Gibbons - Lindberg - Paajarvi
Chabot - DeMelo
Wolanin - Harpur
Borowiecki - Jaros
Ceci

In Goal

The coach also shared that Anders Nilsson (13-18-1) will be back between the pipes tonight to face the Panthers for the second time this month. Nilsson backstopped a 3-2 win in Sunrise on March 3rd where he turned aside 30 of the 32 shots he faced to pick up the decision. Crawford named Nilsson the starter tonight despite Craig Anderson shutting out the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday. Typically the tradition would be to ride the hot goaltender but the coach felt confident in following their scheduled plan and giving Anderson the night off.
"Both goalies have been playing well for us," shared Crawford. "We actually went through the dynamics of this with Craig and Pierre Groulx about 'what happens if Andy pitches a shutout?' and our thought right after was that we're going to keep things the way that we had planned. We had planned that this would be Anders' game and we had planned that Craig would be in the net for Toronto."
"We felt that we couldn't make a bad decision with the way these two guys have been playing," he continued. "I actually talked to Craig about it yesterday and told him I was going to stay with the original plan but he can try and talk me out of it. He's said 'no that's fine' so he understands that we have to keep playing both goalies."

Pageau earns Masterton nomination

The Ottawa chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association announced that Jean-Gabriel Pageau would be the Senators' nominee for the 2018-19 Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy given annually to the player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to ice hockey.
Pageau suffered a devastating achilles injury on the first day of training camp this season and was projected to miss up to 6 months but his work ethic and dedication to his rehab nearly cut the recovery time in half and he was back playing in his first game on January 6th.
"It's great to get a nomination for this trophy," Pageau said. "There have been some really great stories around the league in the past few years with a lot of personal issues that players have been through. To have my name up there too, I'm very flattered."

Where to Watch

It's a 7:30 p.m. start tonight at Canadian Tire Centre and if you'd like to come join us in person you can grab some tickets
right here
.
Can't make it to the rink? Then why not hit up Oliver's Pub on campus at Carleton University where they'll be serving up $4.25 cans of Molson Canadian during tonight's game.