When the Ottawa Senators hit the road for Florida, I found myself glancing at the upcoming schedule.
In Florida against the streaking Panthers. Then another game the next night against the league-leading Tampa Bay Lightning. With Mark Stone out of the line up, those were two sure losses. And then I looked at the next 13 games and started to convince myself that it was possible they might lose every single one of them.
And then whatever happened in Florida happened and now I’m convinced they’ll never lose again. The seemingly unbeatable Senators are back at it tonight as they host the artist formerly known as Jason Spezza and the rest of the Dallas Stars.
These same two teams met 11 days ago back in Dallas and it was the Senators coming away with a 3-2 overtime victory thanks to a breakaway goal by Erik Karlsson.
Little known fact but if the Stars lose to the Senators twice in the span of two weeks, they are automatically relegated next season. Easy does it, Big D.
This is actually a game the Stars desperately need. They currently hold the second Wild Card spot in the Western Conference, just a point up on the Anaheim Ducks. They’ve lost five of their last six though and are dropping faster than a no-look behind the back pass from Jason Spezza (two in a row!). This game was supposed to be Marc Methot’s return to Ottawa but he’ll miss tonight’s game due to a non-Sidney Crosby related hand injury.
On Ottawa’s side of things, it’s all about continuing what will soon be the longest winning streak in franchise history. Two down, ten more to go.
Game Day skate scheduled for 10:00 AM today so we’ll confirm the line up then. And that skate is open to the public so you can head down there and see for yourself if necessary. A best guess for now.
Dzingel-Duchene-Hoffman
Ryan-Pageau-Burrows
Paajarvi-Smith-Pyatt
McCormick-O’Brien-Gaborik
Chabot-Karlsson
Harpur-Ceci
Borowiecki-Claesson
Craig Anderson gets the start in goal for Ottawa. The Senators will extend their winning streak to 3 sometime around 10:00 PM.
-For those that missed it, on Wednesday of this week, I had the opportunity to join Ian Mendes and Shawn Simpson on The Drive. I grew up wanting to be a sports broadcaster and actually auditioned for an on-air gig with The Score at one point many years ago. It was a bit of a disaster though and that’s when I knew for sure that blogging was for me. Although Wednesday’s appearance has me dreaming of a SensChirp podcast featuring interviews with people from the comment section in the not too distant future. You can catch Wednesday’s hour long segment here (starting at 21:30) and here. Thanks to everyone that tuned in and shared feedback, by the way! And thanks to Ian and Shawn for having me on the show.
-Speaking of radio appearances, Ottawa forward Matt Duchene was on yesterday and it’s a must-listen for Sens fans. In a season where just about everything has gone wrong, Duchene has been one of the highlights. Not only because of his on-ice performance but also because he continues to say all the right things about his future in Ottawa. Listening to his comments yesterday, it really does sound like he wants to be a part of this organization long-term. And from what I’ve heard, the two sides have already sort of talked about what that might look like, although they can’t do anything officially until July 1st. You can listen to the interview here.
