Are you not entertained? After a thrilling trade deadline, the Ottawa Senators kick off the weekend of competitive meaningful games in the march to the Playoffs. The Senators collide with the New York Rangers for the only time at the Canadian Tire Centre in a noon-thirty afternoon affair. It is Kids Takeover game, and the first 5,000 get a backpack!

Both teams were busy at yesterday’s deadline.

New York moved on from former Senators’ defender Erik Branstrom for forward Nicolas Aube-Kuebel. Defenseman Carson Soucy was acquired via trade for a 2025 third round pick. Forward Reilly Smith was dealt back to Vegas for forward Brandon Brisson and the pick moved for Soucy. Forward Jusso Parssinen and defender Calvin De Haan were also acquired for defender Ryan Lindgren and forward Jimmy Vessey.

Ottawa packaged forward Josh Norris and defender Jacob Bernard-Docker to Buffalo for forward Dylan Cozens and defender Dennis Gilbert with a second round pick. Forwards Fabian Zetterlund and Tristen Robins were acquired from San Jose for forwards Noah Gregor and Zach Ostaphuck with picks going both ways.

Both teams are going to have to form chemistry with new teammates, but the hunger level and drive is high. Igor Shesterkin and Linus Ullmark are expected to get the starts in their respective goaltending creases for this clash.

Projected Lineups

New York Rangers

Artemi Panarin -- Vincent Trocheck -- Alexis Lafreniere
Will Cuylle -- J.T. Miller -- Mika Zibanejad
Brennan Othmann -- Juuso Parssinen -- Jonny Brodzinski
Brett Berard -- Sam Carrick -- Matt Rempe

K’Andre Miller -- Will Borgen
Carson Soucy -- Braden Schneider
Calvin de Haan -- Zac Jones

Igor Shesterkin
Jonathan Quick

Scratched: Arthur Kaliyev, Urho Vaakanainen

Injured: Adam Fox (upper body), Chris Kreider (upper body), Adam Edstrom (lower body)

Ottawa Senators

Brady Tkachuk -- Tim Stutzle -- Claude Giroux
David Perron -- Dylan Cozens -- Drake Batherson
Fabian Zetterlund -- Shane Pinto -- Michael Amadio
Matthew Highmore -- Ridly Greig -- Adam Gaudette

Jake Sanderson -- Artem Zub
Thomas Chabot -- Nick Jensen
Tyler Kleven -- Travis Hamonic

Linus Ullmark
Anton Forsberg

Scratched: Dennis Gilbert, Nikolas Matinpalo

Injured: Nick Cousins (knee)

Players to Watch

New York — Artemi Panarin — the Russian machine needs to get back on track for his squad to make playoffs.

Ottawa — Dylan Cozens — the new guy, and the one to shakeup the core. With Norris gone, he slides into the top six and will need to breakout to get his new club into postseason contention.

Predicted Final Score

NYR — 3

OTT — 4

More to come…

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