One change to the skaters has been confirmed and that's that Erik Burgdoerfer will be inserted into the line-up in place of Fredrik Claesson. Burgdoerfer's last appearance for the Sens was way back on January 23rd and head coach Guy Boucher sees tonight's contest, on the second half of a back-to-back, as a good opportunity to get him back into action.
"It's time now," said Boucher about inserting Burgdoerfer into the line-up. "We'll need fresh legs since it's a back-to-back. When you look at the bulk of our last 20 games, the only times that I think we didn't look at our best for 60 minutes were the back-to-back games."
"I wanted to put him in before but I just couldn't take anyone else out," Boucher continued. "Right now, this is the opportunity to do it and we'll see what he can do because this a good team we're playing tonight."
Of note upfront tonight, Alex Burrows will skate in his 900th career NHL game. Boucher recalls coaching against Burrows in Junior and remarked on the incredible transformation he went through to become an every game NHL player.
"There were a lot of players like him," Boucher said about Burrows' Junior days in Shawinigan. "He wasn't anything special that would make you think that this guy is going to the NHL so he actually built it all out of character and hard work."
Burrows was moved up the depth chart in the third period of last night's win against the Panthers and helped spark Jean-Gabriel Pageau's late goal to seal the victory so Boucher plans to start with that trio tonight in Tampa.
"We're going to start him tonight with Pageau and Ryan like I did yesterday when we scored that goal," said the coach about Burrows' 900th game. "I'll let him enjoy something special, especially from a guy that wasn't drafted."