An actual hockey game to watch!
After a long and completely unnecessary bye week, the Ottawa Senators are finally ready to kick off the unofficial second half of their season.
The Senators will play 5 games in the next 8 days with all five of those games coming against teams either in or just outside of a playoff position. St. Louis, Toronto, Minnesota, St. Louis and Boston. Safe to say we’ll have a pretty good idea of where this team stands when they hit the All Star break next weekend.
Up first- Vladimir Tarasenko and the St. Louis Blues.
Ottawa comes into tonight’s action 12 points back of the Pittsburgh Penguins for the second Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference. And while that deficit combined with the fact there are six teams to pass along the way make the playoffs a real long-shot, the Senators do have a ridiculous 5 games in hand on the Penguins.
Better get to work fellas.
When we last saw the Senators, all those years ago, they were actually showing signs of turning the corner a little bit. They have a 3-1-1 record in 2018 and the offence is finally starting to click a little bit racking up 19 goals in their last 5 games.
We’ll see if that chemistry remains after a lengthy break and some lineup tinkering from the Head Coach.
Bobby Ryan, Mark Borowiecki and Johnny Oduya are all expected to play tonight. Nate Thompson sounds like a game-time decision and Jean Gabriel Pageau is likely out as he continues to feel the effects of that clearly illegal hit from Leo Komorov before the break. Filip Chlapik is expected to get the call up.
Borowiecki is going to start paired with Chabot but based on what Boucher had to say yesterday, the pairings will change throughout the game. Safe to say Chabot will be back beside Karlsson at some point during the game. That pair was a big reason for Ottawa’s improved offence earlier this month.
A best guess at the line up based on yesterday’s practice.
Dzingel-Brassard-Stone
Hoffman-Duchene-Ryan
Smith-Chlapik-Pyatt
Dumont-Thompson-Burrows
Oduya-Karlsson
Phaneuf-Ceci
Borowiecki-Chabot
Craig Anderson gets the start in goal for Ottawa. Puck drop is scheduled for just after 7:30 PM.
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 27-17-3 (57 pts) | 15-18-9 (39 pts) |
| Goals For | 2.83 (19th) | 2.76 (22nd) |
| Goals Against | 2.62 (6th) | 3.43 (29th) |
| Power Play | 14.8% (29th) | 15.3% (28th) |
| Penalty Kill | 81.7% (14th) | 74.8% (28th) |
| Shots For/Shots Against | 33.4 (8th) 30.4 (6th) |
30.7 (23rd) 32.4 (22nd) |
| Scoring Leaders | Tarasenko- 44 pts Schenn- 44 pts Schwartz- 35 pts |
Stone- 42 pts Karlsson- 30 pts Hoffman- 29 pts |
| Team Shooting % | 8.5% (23rd) | 9.0 (17th) |
| Team Save % | .914% (T-10th) | .894% (30th) |
