Pre-season Game Notes: Sens @ Blackhawks

The Sens are in Chicago tonight set to take on the Blackhawks in their first pre-season game since last weekend's roster cuts. With jobs still up for grabs with the big club, here are a few things to keep an eye out for.

Up Front

Some younger forwards will once again be on display tonight for the Senators as Brady Tkachuk, Alex Formenton, Filip Chlapik and Colin White are all set to skate against the Blackhawks. Expect to see those four players juggled through the line-up and on special teams as they'll each be given an opportunity to make their case for a full-time NHL job to start the season.

One area that Sens head coach Guy Boucher will be monitoring closely tonight is the penalty kill as Tom Pyatt and Magnus Paajarvi, both regulars on the PK, won't be in the line-up tonight for Ottawa.
"We're looking for people to show attributes that are going to help us on the penalty kill," said Boucher. "That's why they (Pyatt and Paajarvi) are out tonight. It gives the other guys an opportunity to show us what they can do in Chicago, a hard place to play, and they'll have most of their line-up so it'll be a real NHL setting."
No line rushes this morning so here's my best guess at the projected forward lines:
Dzingel - Duchene - Boedker
Tkachuk - Smith - Stone
Forementon - Tierney - Ryan
McCormick - White - Chlapik

On D

The competition is equally fierce on defence as the Sens look to narrow down who will crack their opening night roster. They've brought 8 defencemen to Chicago so we'll need to wait and see which ones are inactive but young defenders like Max Lajoie, Christian Jaros and Christian Wolanin have all impressed during training camp and are likely to skate against the Blackhawks.
"We've got some major decisions to make there," Boucher said about his blueline. "There are guys that are head-to-head on this one and I like them all. I really do so it's going to be a tough one."

Still not sure who will be inactive tonight but here's a look at how the defence pairings could look in Chicago:
Chabot - Ceci
Wolanin - Borowiecki
Lajoie - Jaros
DeMelo - Harpur

In Goal

After a pair of splits this pre-season, Mike Condon is expected to plays tonight's game in full. Condon has stopped 27 of the 31 shots he's faced so far in exhibition games but was beaten twice last week by the Blackhawks in an eventual 5-2 defeat. Mike McKenna draws the back-up duty tonight in Chicago.