Game Day Notes: Sens @ Islanders

We've got some pre-game news and notes to pass along from Long Island including a milestone game for Zack Smith, a look at tonight's roster and more.

#600 for Smith

With over a decade of service in Ottawa, Zack Smith is set to play in his 600th career NHL game tonight, all with the Senators.
"It kind of snuck up on me," said Smith this morning. "I didn't even know that I was going to hit it this year until I just randomly checked and was 11 games away."
In a bit of a weird twist of fate, Smith actually made his NHL debut with the Sens against the Islanders way back on November 29th, 2008 in the very same building that they'll be playing in tonight.
"It seems like a long time since I played my first game here," Smith said. "It's kind of fitting that I'll play my 600th here."
"I still remember getting the call when I was in Binghamton," he continued. "I called my family and friends on the ride up to Long Island to tell them I was going to play in my first NHL game and it was a pretty amazing feeling. It sure doesn't seem like 600 games ago."

The Sens alternate captain currently sits 9th all-time in games played in Senators history as well as 3rd in franchise penalty minutes (676), trailing only Chris Neil (2,522) and Chris Phillips (756).

Projected Line-up

Just one piece of line-up news to pass along and it concerns the potential return of Christian Jaros tonight. Jaros was the team's lone healthy scratch in Sunrise on Sunday and was expected to play against the Islanders this evening before leaving today's practice a little early due to a potential injury.
"We were planning to put Jaros back in the line-up but he left the ice at the end of the morning skate," said interim head coach Marc Crawford. "We'll see how he is tonight. If he's ready to go then he's going to play and if he's not ready to go then obviously we'll have the same line-up as last game."
Crawford also shared some details on how he'd like to utilize his defence for the foreseeable future which would include a rotation of some of the team's younger blueliners.
"We're going to rotate defencemen but it won't be everybody," Crawford confirmed. "Obviously we have a couple of guys that are a little bit more seasoned and a little bit more skilled than the other group and it would be tough for us to sit them out. As we've said all along, we've got guys that are at the developmental stage in their careers in their first full pro seasons and defencemen develop at a slower pace than maybe a forward so we want to make sure that everybody continues to progress the right way."

As we wait to confirm Jaros' availability for tonight, here's a look at the line rushes from this morning's skate:
Tkachuk - White - Gibbons
Smith - Pageau - Ryan
Balcers - Tierney - Paajarvi
Lindberg - Duclair - Boedker
Chabot - DeMelo
Harpur - Ceci
Borowiecki - Jaros
Wolanin

In Goal

Craig Anderson (14-22-3) gets the call in the crease tonight for the Senators and looks to pick up his first win since December 17th, 2018. Anderson missed about a month after Christmas with a concussion and has failed to earn a decision since returning although that has been made more difficult due to the lack of goal support he's received over that span (just 1.75 goals per game in his last 8 starts).

Where to Watch

It's a 7 p.m. start in Long Island and if you are in need of a great spot to catch the action be sure to check out Hometown Sports Grill because they'll be serving up $7 tall cans of Molson Canadian during the game.