It had been an awfully long time since the Ottawa Senators put more than two pucks to the back of the net.
But it turned out a match up with Carey Price and the Montreal Canadiens was just was the Sens needed. They broke out of their lengthy goal-scoring funk in a big way on Tuesday night, storming back for a 4-3 win at the Bell Centre becoming the first team to beat the Habs in regulation in their barn all season. Ottawa’s second win of the season against Montreal too.
Now the Senators return home looking to build on that effort when they take on the Zdeno Chara-less Boston Bruins.
It’s the first of four meetings between these two teams and in a weird bit of scheduling, the Sens won’t see the Bruins again until March. Ottawa and Boston play three times in the final month of the season.
The Bruins roll into town with an 11-8-0 record and sit just one point behind Ottawa for third spot in the Atlantic. Seven of those eleven wins have come on the road though, where they sport a 7-4-0 record. They’ve been pretty strong defensively, sitting 5th overall in goals against but they’ve had a hard time on offence, scoring just 2.42 goals per game (21st in the league). They sit 2nd in the league in shots for and 4th in shots against.
They’ve been pretty tough to beat when Tuukka Rask starts. He has an 11-3-0 record including a .942 SV% and a 1.57 GAA. He’s allowed more than one goal in 5 of his 14 starts. The Bruins are home to Calgary tomorrow night so there’s an outside chance Rask gets a night off in Ottawa. Fingers crossed.
On Ottawa’s side of things, they should get a boost tonight from the return of a top six forward. Bobby Ryan has missed the last two games and seems like he should be ready to go tonight. He was on a line with Kyle Turris and Ryan Dzingel at practice yesterday.
We’ll see what Boucher has to say after the morning skate. Based on practice yesterday, a best guess at the Ottawa line up for this one.
Dzingel-Turris-Ryan
Hoffman-Brassard-Stone
Smith-Pageau-Pyatt
Kelly-Lazar-Neil
Methot-Karlsson
Phaneuf-Ceci
Claesson-Wideman
Craig Anderson is expected to get the start in the Ottawa goal. Puck drop is scheduled for just after 7:30 PM.
-Interesting bit of news on the expansion draft front yesterday as it has been reported that due to a wrinkle in his contract, the Ottawa Senators do not have to protect Bobby Ryan. That doesn’t necessarily mean they won’t but they do have the option to leave him exposed. The added flexibility is certainly good news for Pierre Dorion and the Senators but it’s anything but a straightforward decision. Ryan’s contract is obviously going to be an issue down the line but losing Ryan (and for nothing) would leave a pretty big hole on the right side. And considering Ryan has been one of the most productive RWs in the game the last two years (14th last year and 20th the year before that), replacing his production wouldn’t be easy. On top of all that, there’s no guarantee the Vegas Golden Knights (still feels kind of weird) would actually want to take on Ryan and his contract. Lots for Dorion to think about over the next few months.
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