Bruins vs Senators Preview: Sens Them On Their Way

Just the Facts:

Game Time: 7:00 PM, TD Garden.

TV Broadcast: NESN, TVA, CITY.

Radio Broadcast: 98.5 The Sports Hub

Rival SB Nation Site: Silver Seven

Season Record: Bruins: 6-6-0, 5th in Atlantic Division | Senators 5-2-2, 4th in Atlantic Division

Sens Lines:

Clarke MacArthur - Kyle Turris - Bobby Ryan

Milan Michalek - Mika Zibanejad - Alex Chiasson

Zack Smith - David - Legwand - Chris Neil

Mike Hoffman - Curtis Lazar - Mark Stone

Defensive Pairings:

Chris Phillips - Erik Karlsson

Jared Cown - Cody Ceci

Patrick Wierchioch - Eric Gryba

Goalies: Craig Anderson, Andrew Hammond

Bruins Lines: (I…I think?)

Milan Lucic - David Krejci - Seth Griffith

Brad Marchand - Patrice Bergeron - Reilly Smith

Matt Fraser - Carl Soderberg - Loui Eriksson

Daniel Paille - Gregory Campbell - Simon Gagne

Defensive Pairings:

Dennis Seidenberg - Dougie Hamilton

David Warsofsky - Adam McQuaid

Joe Morrow - Zach Trotman

Goalies: Tuukka Rask, Niklas Svedberg

IR: Don't make me say it.

Game Notes:

• It simply should not take overtime to beat the Sabres, but it did. It felt like finding out Santa isn't real but realizing that Christmas still goes on. The jumbled up third line featuring Soderberg as center managed to tie it up. Marchand finally had a great game and scored twice, probably because he was pissed off. The Bruins outshot the Sabres 37-15. The phrase "a win is a win" makes me break out in hives, but I'll take these two road points for what they are.
• Boston's next five games are against teams that didn't make the playoffs last season. Ease of schedule should allow new defensemen to find their game and get confident. It seems like even the veterans need this.
• The Senators are a good team this year. They put up a fight in a shootout loss to the Blackhawks. Craig Anderson's goaltending has been crucial and Bruins offense will need to produce a lot of chances.

NEVER FORGET:

Last Game in Fancy Stats:

I guess the game really wasn't that bad, but it's the Sabres.