Tuesday, February 12, 2008

The new look of the Senators

The Ottawa Senators will have quite a different looking line up when they face off against the Buffalo Sabres tonight. For only the second game in quite a while the line of Spezza Heatley and Alfredsson will be intact as they are all healthy, plus the Sens have picked up Mike Commodore and Cory Stillman in a trade with the Carolina Hurricanes.

The Sabres haven't done to well historically against the Senators big three. The main task for Buffalo will be to shut down the Spezza-Heatley-Alfredsson line, and work on the assumption that the Sabres are in good position to outplay the Senators on the other shifts.

The other changes in the Senators line up are due to a trade with Carolina. In the deal the Senators sent defenceman Joe Corvo and forward Patrick Eaves to the Hurricanes in exchange for defenceman Mike Commodore and forward Cory Stillman. In the short term (of this season) Ottawa comes out way ahead as a result of this deal. While expiring contracts made this deal worth doing for Carolina, the Senators have improved themselves for this season. Commodore is a real good player and should make a difference for the Sens. Lets just hope that they are still too unadjusted to the team to be any good tonight.

The other (possible) change for the Senators is in net, where Martin Gerber and Ray Emery have been trading starts all season. Neither is the clear number one, but Emery is expected to get the start for his second straight game.

As a follow up, things are continuing to look positive for Richard Zednik after he had his jugular slashed open last game. Last word is that he is still in stable condition, and is expected to be moved out of ICU soon.

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