Carolina Hurricanes at Ottawa Senators: Lineups and Game Discussion

The Carolina Hurricanes are in the Canadian capital on Saturday night to begin a home and home pair against the Ottawa Senators. In seeking to break their current three-game slide, the Canes will again be without Erik Haula as he remains sidelined with a knee issue described by coach Rod Brind’Amour as “more than day-to-day”. The Canes will have two consecutive chances to snap their funk against the Sens, who are currently living in the basement of the NHL standings with just 11 points.

Brind’Amour reinforced that he was pleased with the effort and style of play that led to the Thursday defeat at the hands of the Rangers and Henrik Lundqvist. The constant pressure and puck possession certainly are indicators that Carolina is controlling action, but the goals at the end of periods and on special teams continue to provide the difference in their recent skid. Below is the lineup that Brind’Amour will send out in search of a victory on Saturday:

Nino Niederreiter - Jordan Staal - Teuvo Teravainen
Andrei Svechnikov - Sebastian Aho - Warren Foegele
Ryan Dzingel - Lucas Wallmark - Martin Necas
Brock McGinn - Eetu Luostarinen - Brian Gibbons

Jaccob Slavin - Dougie Hamilton
Jake Gardiner - Brett Pesce
Joel Edmundson - Trevor van Riemsdyk

James Reimer
Petr Mrazek

Injuries and Scratches: Erik Haula (knee), Jordan Martinook (core muscle), Haydn Fleury (healthy)

The Ottawa Senators enter action following a win in their last outing against the Los Angeles Kings. While the Sens are in the midst of a rebuild, they still have talented performers such as Bobby Ryan, and two young cornerstones in Brady Tkachuk and Thomas Chabot. The power play continues to be one of the biggest weaknesses for the Sens, as their 7.4% conversion rate (4-for-54) is the worst in the league.

New head coach D.J. Smith will go with Anders Nilsson in net, as he makes his eighth start on the year. The rest of the lineup will look like this:

Brady Tkachuk - Chris Tierney - Anthony Duclair
Nick Paul - Jean-Gabriel Pageau - Connor Brown
Vladislav Namestnikov - Colin White - Tyler Ennis
Filip Chlapik - J.C. Beaudin - Jonathan Davidsson

Thomas Chabot - Nikita Zaitsev
Erik Brannstrom - Ron Hainsey
Mark Borowiecki - Dylan Demelo

Anders Nilsson
Craig Anderson