Given the injury news for the Ottawa Senators, this was always going to be an interesting match up against the high flying Dallas Stars. Missing Josh Norris and Anton Forsberg? Those are some big shoes to fill.
Ahead of the game, DJ Smith opted to slide Derick Brassard right in to Norris’ slot between Claude Giroux and Alex DeBrincat. We call this the “least disruptive option”, enabling Smith’s other two lines to maintain their chemistry. For this game, however, all eyes would be on how the lines were deployed as things went on - as you can imagine Shane Pinto moving into that top six centre role pretty quickly if things with Brassard weren’t working out.