home for a day

Posted by Gord Wilson on January 31, 2008

Greetings all from Scotiabank Place on this Thursday, January 31st.  Game day in the capital, with the Boston Bruins in town for Game 4 of the eight-game season-long series. So far, so good for the Senators  against the B's... Ottawa has won all three previous meetings. 

Both teams come into tonight's game off post all-star game victories. The Bruins beat Nashville 4-1 on Tuesday, while the Senators scored an impressive 5-2 win in Long Island.

Senators played the third period of that game without captain Daniel Alfredsson. He left experiencing some soreness in a hip flexor.  And while he didn't practise yesterday, it is expected that Alfredsson will be in the lineup tonight. Patrick Eaves and Cody Bass aren't expected to play, so that means Nick Foligno remains with the team and should be on the ice tonight.

Lines are expected to remain the same against Boston... Spezza in between Robitaille and Alfredsson,  Fisher between McAmmond and Neil, Kelly will centre Vermette and Donovan,  while the final line combo has Foligno in the middle between Schubert and McGrattan. No changes to the defence pairings and  Martin Gerber starts in goal.

John Paddock adhering to his policy change regarding his goalies... if you win, you stay in. Gerber picked up his 23rd win of the season on Tuesday.

The Bruins come to town fresh off a 4-1 win over the Predators on Tuesday. They're led offensively by all-star Marc Savard, who has 57 points, and all-star goalie Tim Thomas, who's 17-11-3 on the year, with a .930 save percentage and a 2.30 goals-against average. Game time tonight is 7:30, this one can be seen on Rogers Sportsnet, with Dean and Garry, and of course heard all along the Team 1200 radio network, with yours truly and Dave Schreiber.

enjoy the game,

gord