If you’d told me before the season started that the Senators would be sixth in the east after six games, I probably would’ve taken it. If you’d told me the Devils would’ve been one of those teams ahead of them, I would laughed in your face. But here we are, with the 3-1-2 Sens hosting the 5-1-0 Devils.

Here are the projected lines for tonight:

Ryan - Brassard - Stone

Smith - Turris - Dzingel

Hoffman - Pageau - Pyatt

Burrows - Thompson - Brown Phaneuf - Karlsson

Oduya - Ceci

Claesson - Wideman Anderson (starter)

Condon

Some thoughts, but not very many, since it’s almost game time:

Logan Brown gets into his second game tonight. Let’s see if he can play more than 10 minutes

Erik Karlsson showed very little rust last game. Let’s see if he passes 25 minutes tonight

It’s interesting to me that Boucher keeps starting Craig Anderson. I’m not bothered by it, I just assumed he would’ve liked to see more out of his backup early in the season

The league’s third-best offence meets the league’s second-best defence tonight. It’s weird seeing New Jersey as a high-scoring team

The Devils’ ice-time leader is Steven Santini, who I have never heard of in my life

Here are tonight’s stats, via NHL.com except Corsi/Fenwick from NaturalStatTrick.com:

Team Stats Category Ottawa Senators Montreal Canadiens Category Ottawa Senators Montreal Canadiens -- Value Rank Value Rank Goals/GP 3.64 5th 2.00 31st Goals against/GP 2.64 8th 3.82 29th Shots/GP 32.4 13th 38.8 1st Shots against/GP 32.4 16th 31.2 9th Corsi (5v5, Score & Venue Adjusted) 45.25 31st 52.52 6th Fenwick (5v5, SVA) 48.53 20th 52.79 6th