About the Senators - 01-10-12

Tuesday, 10 January 2012 14:16

Written by Seth Rorabaugh

A preview of the Senators.

When and where: 7 p.m, EDT. Consol Energy Center.

TV: Root Sports, SportsNet East, TVA.

Record: 22-15-6, 50 points. The Senators are in fifth place in the Eastern Conference and second place in the Northeast Division.

Leading Scorer: Jason Spezza, 42 points (15 goals, 27 assists).

Last Game: 6-4 home win against the Flyers, Sunday. Daniel Alfredsson (right), Nick Foligno, Erik Karlsson and Chris Neil each had a goal and an assist for the Senators.

Last Game against the Penguins: 6-4 home win, Dec. 16. Steve Sullivan had a goal and two assists for the Penguins.

Senators Player We Would Bet Money On Scoring: Spezza. He has 37 career points in 30 career games against the Penguins.

Ex-Penguins on the Senators: Sergei Gonchar, D.

Ex-Senators on the Penguins: Ray Shero, general manager.

Useless Senators Trivia Vaguely Related to the Penguins: The first person to score an overtime goal against the Senators was former Penguins forward Phil Bourque. While playing with the Rangers, Bourque scored at 4:49 of overtime in a 3-2 win, Oct. 24, 1992.

Best Senators Video We Could Find: Former Senators defenseman Igor Kravchuk driving "the nail through the Devils' heart" with an empty net goal to secure the franchise's first playoff series win in a 1998 Eastern Conference quarterfinal series:

Probable goaltenders: Brent Johnson (2-4-2, 3.24 GAA, .885 SV%) for the Penguins and Craig Anderson (20-12-4, 3.13 GAA, .902 SV%) for the Senators.

Injuries: For the Penguins, right wingers Craig Adams (knee), Arron Asham (knee) and left winger James Neal (foot) are probable. Defenseman Paul Martin (illness) are questionable. Center Jordan Staal (knee) is out. Centers Sidney Crosby (head), Dustin Jeffrey (knee), Jordan Staal (knee) and defenseman Kris Letang (head) are on injured reserve. For the Senators, centers Peter Regin (shoulder) and Jesse Winchester (concussion) are on injured reserve.

-Potential Lines and Defensive Pairings: The Penguins' primary lines at today's morning skate were:

Chris Kunitz - Evgeni Malkin - James Neal
Eric Tangradi - Pascal Dupuis - Tyler Kennedy
Steve Sullivan - Richard Park - Matt Cooke
Arron Asham - Joe Vitale - Craig Adams

-They did not practice with a full crew of defensemen. Here were their primary pairings against the Devils Saturday:

Paul Martin - Zbynek Michalek
Brooks Orpik - Deryk Engelland
Matt Niskanen - Ben Lovejoy

-The Senators' primary lines against the Flyers Sunday were:

Milan Michalek - Jason Spezza - Colin Greening
Erik Condra - Kyle Turris - Daniel Alfredsson
Nick Foligno - Zack Smith - Bobby Butler
Kaspars Daugavins - Zenon Konopka - Chris Neil

Their defensive pairings for tonight are expected to be:

Filip Kuba - Erik Karlsson
Jared Cowen - Sergei Gonchar
Chris Phillips - Brian Lee

Notes:

-With a win tonight, Dan Bylsma will break a tie with Michel Therrien for second-most coaching wins in franchise history. Each has 135. Eddie Johnston holds the record with 232.

-Martin has 198 career points.

-Park has 97 career goals.

-Welcome back James Neal?

-Anderson is expected to debut this mask tonight: