Ottawa’s messy line game

Nikita Filatov is headed for the KHL after a ho-hum try out with the Ottawa Senators this season. While his performance won’t really be missed, it does pose an interesting problem to Ottawa’s lines. Although it may not appear that Ottawa is Centre men heavy, it actually is with Spezza, Regin, da Costa, Smith, Winchester and Konopka all listed as Centre men on the last roster. Juggling these lines and mixing them up when you’re short a winger, and not even accounting for injuries, is going to be a challenge. MacLean’s options seem obvious on paper, but the reality is somewhat different. The first line of Greening-Spezza-Michalek is this season’s top line, no doubt. They’ve generated more points and more chances between them than any other line the Senators have experimented with. Theoretically, the second line should be Alfredsson-Regin-Butler, but with Regin and Alfredsson both prone to injuries this season, this isn’t a safe bet. Which brings us to a third line option of Daugavins-...