Game Day Notes: Sens @ Panthers

We've got the latest news and notes from Sunrise including a look at the Sens' projected line-up, goalie of choice and more before tonight's 5 p.m. start against the Panthers.

Projected Line-up

Just one change to tonight's game roster and that will be Christian Wolanin checking back in on defence. Wolanin has been a healthy scratch for the Senators the past two games and interim head coach Marc Crawford shared some details on how he'd like to keep his young defence corps engaged for the remainder of the season.
"We've got a young group of defencemen and we want to keep all of them playing," said Crawford during his media scrum this morning. "I still haven't decided which one of the defencemen is going to come out yet but I'll tell them before I tell you guys."
Wolanin has appeared in 14 games with Ottawa this year and while his puck-moving skills have continued to impress, he's dedicated himself to improving his defensive play at the NHL level which is something his new coach stressed requires experience.
"I don't mind guys coming in and making mistakes," Crawford said. "It's the mistake of sitting back that we want to eliminate. We want our people to be forceful and Wolanin is one of those players that tries to initiate, tries to get up in the play, he's got a really good offensive flair to his game and I have the luxury of having coached his father too."

The interim head coach also also took a moment to praise Brian Gibbons' play yesterday against the Lightning, particularly in instances where he was paired with Colin White and Brady Tkachuk. With no morning skate today, it's difficult to assess if any forward line shuffling will occur against the Panthers but Crawford does have some different looks he could turn to this evening in Sunrise.
While we wait to see which defenceman will be inactive, here's how the lines and pairings could look this evening against the Panthers:
Tkachuk - White - Pageau
Balcers - Tierney - Ryan
Duclair - Gibbons - Boedker
Lindberg - Smith - Paajarvi
Chabot - DeMelo
Harpur - Ceci
Borowiecki - Jaros
Wolanin

In Goal

The Sens will turn to Anders Nilsson (10-16-1) in goal tonight for the second half of their Florida back-to-back. Nilsson has hit a bit of a rough stretch recently having surrendered 14 goals over his last 3 starts but he does hold a road win over the Panthers as a member of the Canucks this season. Way back on Oct. 13th, 2018, Nilsson made 24 saves to backstop Vancouver to a 3-2 victory in Sunrise and he'll be looking to replicate that success tonight for the Senators.

Where to Watch

It's a 5 p.m. start in Sunrise so why not head out for dinner and catch the game at Local Heroes on Clyde where they'll be serving up personal pitchers of Molson Canadian for just $7.19.