Pre-season Game Notes: Sens vs. Canadiens

Tonight's line-up will look pretty close to what fans can expect to see when the Sens kick off the regular season next week. Here's a breakdown of the projected lines and pairings against the Montreal Canadiens.

Up Front

Just a scare for Bobby Ryan who left for parts of Thursday's game in Chicago after being hit in the hand by a Duncan Keith point shot. Ryan, who has suffered numerous hand and finger injuries over the past few seasons, had an x-ray done to confirm that there were no broken bones and was able to finish the game with just some mild discomfort.
"I did know it wasn't broken because I've felt that before," said Ryan following this morning's skate. "You just have to gut it out. You travel the day of and you want to finish the game. I feel fine now. It's a little tender but no real issues."
With Ryan avoiding another potential injury setback, he can focus on skating with the same line-mates for the second game in a row. He was re-united with Matt Duchene and Ryan Dzingel in Chicago and the trio clicked instantly on the Sens' first goal of the night.
"I've always liked playing with them," Ryan said. "They open up a lot of space and do a lot of things well down low."

The rest of the line-up looks pretty similar to Thursday's game against the Blackhawks with the exception of Colin White who will be the team's extra forward tonight. Sens head coach Guy Boucher did confirm that he's finalized his forward group and it consists of the players remaining in camp.
Here's a look at the projected forward lines for tonight:
Dzingel - Duchene - Ryan
Tkachuk - Smith - Stone
Formenton - Tierney - Boedker
McCormick - Pyatt - Paarjarvi

On D

The Sens currently have eight defencemen remaining in training camp and tonight's pre-season finale could determine who will start the regular season in Ottawa this year. Boucher confirmed his defenceman for tonight and noted that Cody Ceci and Max Lajoie will be kept out of the line-up against the Canadiens.
"We're going to keep Ceci out, he's a guy that's going to live on the ice for us this year so we want to make sure that nothing happens to him before the season starts and he's played his three pre-season games already," said Boucher. "We'll keep Lajoie out too because we've seen enough of what we wanted to see from him which is has all been very positive."

That leaves a group of Thomas Chabot, Dylan DeMelo, Mark Borowiecki, Christian Jaros, Chris Wideman and Ben Harpur to suit up tonight against Montreal.
And here's how the defence should look against Montreal:
Chabot - DeMelo
Borowiecki - Jaros
Harpur - Wideman

In Goal

Craig Anderson gets the call for Ottawa's last pre-season game of the year and the Sens starter is looking to bounce back after some struggles last season.
"For the most part, just stop the puck and not let any of the outside factors interfere," said Anderson about what he needs to do better this year. "That was a huge part of some of our problems last year, not only for myself but other guys too. Things didn't go our way and all of a sudden you start to do things that you don't normally do. You start to force things and press things and before you know it you're in a vicious cycle of negativity and poor results."
Mike McKenna draws the back-up duty against Montreal.