Game Day Notes: Sens @ Golden Knights

The Sens road trip continues in Las Vegas and here's everything we know about the Sens line-up before tonight's 8 p.m. start against the Golden Knights.

Smith Injured

The Sens will be without another forward for a few weeks as Zack Smith is expected to miss a good chunk of time after leaving Friday's game with an injury.
"It's one month at least," said Guy Boucher about Smith's timeline. "It's not the orbital bone but he's got a broken bone in his face and it's going to take a while."
Smith joins Brady Tkachuk in the "week-to'week" category for the Senators as Tkachuk continues to recover from a torn ligament in his leg and isn't expected back until sometime in November.
"It's too bad," Boucher continued about the growing number of injurues. "The players have been pushing hard, sticking together and it's a really good group to work with. We're being tried right now injury-wise and because of our lack of experience it hurts you."
As a result of Smith's injury, Jack Rodewald has been recalled from Belleville.

Up Front

With Smith absent for the foreseeable future, Boucher is reverting back to the 11 forwards / 7 defencemen deployment that saw the Sens rattle off 3 straight wins a little more than a week ago. It looks like Colin White will shift back to centre to replace Smith and if yesterday's practice is any indication, we could be seeing a lot more of Matt Duchene and Mark Stone on the same line.

Rodewald will be the healthy scratch up front for the Senators. Here's a look at the projected forward lines for tonight:
Dzingel - Duchene - Stone
Boedker - Tierney - Ryan
Formenton - White - Paajarvi
McCormick - Pyatt

On Defence

We mentioned Smith's injury above but the coach also shared yesterday that Ben Harpur has been placed on IR and has returned to Ottawa for treatment. Harpur hasn't played since October 20th against Montreal where he appeared to have sustained the injury.
The Sens will be getting a defender back in their line-up though as Mark Borowiecki returns after serving his one game suspension for a hit on Bruins' defenceman Urho Vaakanainen.
It's expected that Christian Wolanin will be the extra defenceman and won't play tonight against the Golden Knights.
With that, here's a look at the projected defence pairings against Vegas:
Chabot - DeMelo
Lajoie - Ceci
Borowiecki - Jaros
Wideman

In Goal

Craig Anderson (4-3-1) makes his 7th consecutive start for the Sens tonight as he looks to snap out of his current 2-game losing skid. Anderson has been a workhorse once again this season and along with starting all but one game this season for the Senators, he's also faced the 2nd most shots in the league (295) this year.
"The schedule has been light given that we haven't had any back-to-backs and the travel has been pretty good for us so far," said Anderson. "As the season keeps going there will be a lot more days where we'll be splitting ice time but right now the schedule has been conducive for me to get in there, play and not feel overwhelmed by lack of energy or too much work load."

Where to Watch

Puck drop is set for a little after 8 p.m. tonight in Las Vegas and if you're looking for the perfect spot to catch tonight's game then we've got you covered. Grab a crew and hit up Local Heroes on Clyde where they'll be serving up personal pitchers of Molson Canadian for just $7.19.
You can also watch all the action live on Sportsnet 1 and TVAS as well as on the radio at TSN 1200.