Sens head coach Guy Boucher met with the media this morning in Dallas and passed along a piece of good news regarding Marian Gaborik.
"I have to go back and check but I think that Gaborik is going to be ready to go," shared Boucher following the team's morning skate. "We'll bring him in and we'll see which forward will come out."
Gaborik missed both games this weekend with a minor injury which Boucher said was "precautionary" so that it doesn't get any worse. #12's return means that some of the lines will be mixed up to see if the coach can spark some offence but the combination of Mark Stone, Bobby Ryan and Jean-Gabriel Pageau, who have combined for 10 points in the last 3 games, isn't going anywhere.
"I don't want to break something that works so well just to hopefully get half of everything else," said the coach. "It's the other guys' responsibilities to be better offensively and defensively."'
No changes are expected on the back end which means that Erik Burgdoerfer will once again be the extra tonight. Chris Wideman, who remained in Ottawa during the team's 4-game road trip, is nearing a return and could be back on the blue line before the end of the season.
"We're hoping to be able to do it," Boucher said about using Wideman this season. "But it's not like he has to come back because the playoffs are coming either so you want to be smart with that one. It's taken so much time to heal and he's doing really good now that you don't want to jeopardize him having to wait another 1-2 months to get back to the same spot."
Judging by the morning skate, here's a look at the Sens projected line-up for tonight:
Hoffman - Duchene - Paajarvi
Ryan - Pageau - Stone
Dzingel - O'Brien - Pyatt
Gaborik - Smith - Burrows
Claesson - Karlsson
Harpur - Ceci
Borowiecki - Chabot
