During his media scrum today, head coach Guy Boucher hinted at the idea that we could see the return of 11 forwards and 7 defencemen tonight but that decision will be made after warm-up. The Sens recalled Thomas Chabot and Christian Jaros from Belleville over the weekend and the coach confirmed that Chabot will make his season debut tonight. Jaros may also draw in tonight if the Sens decide to roll with 7 defencemen so stay tuned for more info closer to puck drop. The coach also mentioned that the 12th forward in these scenarios would be Logan Brown.
"I have to wait an find out about a forward," said Boucher earlier today. "Then we'll make a decision on if we're going 11 & 7 or we're going with 12 & 6."
That forward the coach is waiting to hear about is Mike Hoffman who missed yesterday's practice. Hoffman's absence wasn't necessarily an injury but rather the winger was feeling a little under the weather yesterday so that may have carried over to game day. He returned to the ice this morning but it's not a guarantee that he'll be available for tonight's game.
Since we're still waiting to see how the line-up will be deployed tonight, here's a look at the forward lines and defence pairings from today's skate (Formenton and Jaros were the extras):
Ryan - Brassard - Stone
Smith - Turris - Dzingel
Pyatt - Pageau - Hoffman
Thompson - Brown - Burrows
Phaneuf - Wideman
Borowiecki - Ceci
Claesson - Chabot
