Game Day- Senators Host Desperate Panthers

SensChirp March 20, 2018 0
Game Day- Senators Host Desperate Panthers

(UPDATE 3:20 PM)- This afternoon, the Ottawa Senators organization shared the awful news that Melinda and Erik Karlsson have lost their son.  Honestly can’t imagine what they are going through right now.  Please keep Melinda and Erik in your thoughts and prayers.

With just eleven games left in the NHL season, I have officially run out of ways to say the Ottawa Senators have nothing left to play for.

This obviously isn’t the first season where this team has missed the playoffs but it’s been a while since they were out of it this early.  The writing has been on the wall since the extended post-Sweden trip losing streak but realistically, the Senators haven’t played a meaningful hockey game since mid-January.

That’s nearly 30 games of just staring blankly at the TV screen for 2.5 hours while internally struggling with this idea that you really should want the team you cheer for…to lose.  It’s just a really unpleasant way to watch sports and I’ll be glad when it’s over.

Now with that out of the way- who’s ready for Panthers vs. Senators TONIGHT at the CTC?!

Goes without saying but this is another huge game for the Florida Panthers.  Ottawa dealt their playoff hopes a devastating blow last week and they can do it again tonight.  Florida is just three points back of the final playoff spot with a couple games in hand on the team they’re chasing, the New Jersey Devils.

And in a bizarre bit of scheduling, the two teams will meet for a third consecutive week, next Thursday.

Yesterday, the Senators announced they have recalled rookie forward Filip Chlapik because apparently Guy Boucher insisted.  And with Ryan Dzingel also expected to miss tonight’s game and Jim O’Brien has been brought back up on an emergency basis. Patrick Sieloff was recalled and will play tonight.

Smith-Duchene-Hoffman
Gaborik-Chlapik-Ryan
Paajarvi-Pageau-Pyatt
McCormick-O’Brien-Burrows

Chabot-Ceci
Harpur-Borowiecki
Sieloff-Claesson

Craig Anderson gets the start in goal.

***

A quick thought on the #MelnykOut billboards that went up across the city yesterday.

First of all, good on those involved.  Fans are frustrated with the current state of the organization and this is one of the few ways a fan can express that frustration. Also, things like this are extremely difficult to organize and execute effectively and the people behind the campaign are clearly working hard to make it happen.  And they are giving a voice to a lot of fans that felt like they didn’t really have one.

I recognize that this campaign may not be for everyone and that some people may not agree with the approach, and that’s fine too.  There’s no “right way” to be a fan, as we’ve discussed many times on this site.

As the organizers have said, the purpose of these billboards was to “start a conversation”.  Obviously the conversation about Ownership has been going on for the last four to five years but in the last 24 hours, this campaign certainly has started a passionate debate across the hockey world.  Unfortunate, people are mostly talking about billboards.

And that’s sort of the frustrating part of all this.  There are some very real reasons that fans are angry right now but it seems like they are mostly being drowned out in a debate over whether or not this was the right approach.  Although maybe there isn’t a consensus on what those issues are.  When I read the information provided at MelnykOut.ca, the lines blur between issues with Ownership, which I feel are legitimate and some questionable decisions by Management, which is sort of a separate issue.

If we’re trying to start a conversation, it should be obvious what that conversation is about.  Based on everything I’ve read on here and on social media in the last 24 hours, I’m not so sure it is.

It’s also quite likely that people high up in the organization will see these billboards. Maybe even Eugene Melnyk himself gets word of them during his next briefing with the team’s CEO.  This is where it’s important that they know exactly what fans are frustrated about and what we would like to see from the organization going forward.  Whether that’s under the leadership of Eugene Melnyk or somebody else.