Game Day Five: Senators at Devils, Nov. 10

The Senators open their quick road trip against the streaking New Jersey Devils

The set-up

The Senators have a healthy challenge ahead of them as they take on the streaking New Jersey Devils on the road. Winners of seven straight, New Jersey is near the top of nearly every statistical category this season and has put the league on notice as a legitimate team.

The Senators enter Thursday night’s clash on a bit of a slide dropping six straight games. However, none of these games were the Senators ever out of the game, all of them were either a one goal loss, or an empty netter making it a two-goal loss. The Senators have shown resolve in this stretch, none more so than when they fought and clawed back against Vegas who at one point was up 5-1 until the Senators buried three unanswered. Look for the Senators to play streak busters tonight to right their own ship and get back in the win column.

Roster notes

Head coach D.J. Smith may be looking to shake the lineups up for this game having both Dylan Gambrell and Derick Brassard elevated into line positions for yesterday morning’s practice. Mathieu Joseph was practicing however not in his usual third line group with Tyler Motte and Shane Pinto. We will find out tonight if it will be Joseph or Gambrell who slots into the third line for the game.

Additionally, Smith mentioned that goaltender Anton Forsberg will get the start tonight following two games as backup after he opened the season with ten straight starts.

Below is how the Senators lined up yesterday morning for practice at Canadian Tire Centre:

Forwards:

Tkachuk – Stützle – Giroux

DeBrincat – Brassard – Batherson

Motte – Pinto – Gambrell

Kelly – Kastelic – Watson

Joseph

Defense:

Chabot – Bernard-Docker

Sanderson – Hamonic

Brannstrom – Holden

Zaitsev

Past history

Thursday marks the 121st matchup between these two teams with New Jersey holding the all-time record 65-50 with an additional five ties. However, the last three times these two faced off the Senators walked away victorious. It seems to rarely be a dull moment lately when these two play. Four of the last five games have ended in either overtime or a shootout, including the Senators pulling out the OT victory at Canadian Tire Centre at the end of last season.

Who to watch

Alex DeBrincat has yet to find his scoring touch as a Senator, though not for a lack of trying. A 40-goal scorer twice in his career, DeBrincat has had some great looks on net to start this season, however has also been met with some borderline herculean saves on shots that everyone, himself included, thought were going to light the lamp.Don’t mistake his lack of goals for a lack of production though. DeBrincat has been an incredible set up man for the Senators to start the season tallying nine assists in twelve games. Most of those have been primary assists as well, setting his linemates up for success every time he hits the ice.

As D.J. Smith has mentioned many times already, no one is concerned about DeBrincat not scoring. He’s the kind of player that when he finds the net once the flood gates will open and could walk away with a multi-goal game any given night.

Where to watch

Thursday’s game can be seen live on TSN5, RDS and Sportsnet Pacific at 7 p.m. Fans can also tune into the radio call on TSN 1200 and Unique FM 94,5