Game Day Notes: Sens vs. Penguins

Tkachuk talks about his first NHL scrap, Anderson gets the start in nets and some details about tonight's Sens line-up against the Penguins.

Tka-chucking Knuckles

He's played his first NHL game, scored his first NHL goal and now Brady Tkachuk can add his first NHL fight to his list list of accomplishments this season.
"I don't look for fights but with the way that I play and my values, I jus thought it was a high hit especially on my landlord," said Tkachuk about sticking up for his teammate/roommate Mark Stone yesterday against Detroit. "That was me paying my rent for the past two months of living there."
Tkachuk only has a few tilts uder his belt dating back to his time in the USHL and earlier but all things considered he was pretty happy with how his first forray into dropping the gloves at the NHL level went.
"I'm not going to lie, I thought I did pretty well," he said. "It was a pretty quick fight and I like that...not too tiring."
To no one's surprise, Tkachuk's accolades on and off the ice have clearly impressed the Sens management and he was recently told that he'd be staying in Ottawa for the remainder of the season. He was still eligible to be sent back to Junior so the news of his future with the Senators was welcome by the dynamic rookie who heard the news from GM Pierre Dorion's son on Take Your Kid To Work Day earlier this week.
"It's super exciting," shared Tkachuk. "It was a little nerve-racing not knowing so once I heard the news and the way that they did it to surprise me was awesome."

Projected line-up

Sens head coach Guy Boucher confirms that there will be no line-up changes tonight and he'll use the same squad as Thursday's win over the Red Wings. While the Penguins are expected to be without Sidney Crosby tonight, Boucher still stressed that Pittsburgh is a "stacked team" and will be a good challenge for a young Senators line-up.

According to the line rushes at today's morning skate, the Sens will have 3 rookies on scoring lines tonight (Drake Batherson, Brady Tkachuk and Colin White) and while the Senators currently lead the league in points by rookies with 31, it's the young players' complete development that has caught the eye of some of Ottawa's veterans.
"As a young group I think that's how you progress," said Mark Borowiecki about Thursday's 2-1 win. "You have to learn to win those games. The ones that are 5-1 are a little easier to lock down but I think for us it's about keeping our composure in the third period."
Max McCormick and Christian Jaros are expected be the healthy scratches this evening.
Here's a look at the projected forward lines and defence pairings for tonight:
Boedker - Duchene - Batherson
Tkachuk - White - Stone
Dzingel - Tierney - Ryan
Paajarvi - Smith - Pyatt
Chabot - DeMelo
Lajoie - Ceci
Borowiecki - Wideman

In Goal

He was stellar on Thursday night against the Red Wings and Craig Anderson (8-5-2) will be right back in nets tonight for the Senators. Anderson is starting to heat up and has won 3 of his last 4 starts as he looks to add to tjhat total tonight against the Penguins.

Where to Watch

We've got ourselves a 7 p.m. start at Canadian Tire Centre this evening and if you'd like to join use you can
grab some tickets here
.
Can't make it to the rink? Why not round up a crew and head to Hometown Sports Grill because they'll be serving up$7 tall cans of Molson Canadian during the game.