The St. Louis Blues have been one of the league’s best teams on home ice so far this season. And on Tuesday, the Ottawa Senators rolled into their building and walked away with a well-earned two points.
They’ll be looking for more of the same when they take on the top team in the National Hockey League- the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Not sure about the rest of you but I’m still not really used to this idea of the Blue Jackets being a good team let alone the best team in the league.
In my pre-season predictions, I confidently stated the following about the Jackets- “They were right near the bottom of the Conference last year and will be there again in 2016/2017.” Last place in the East, I said. The thing is, plenty of people predicted the same. After a 27th place finish last year and a relatively quiet off-season there wasn’t really any reason to believe this year would be much different for the Blue Jackets.
Call it the Brad Shaw factor.
Columbus comes into this one with a jaw-dropping 30-9-4 record and a league best +49 goal differential. They’re 17-4-1 on home ice, 3rd in goals for, 3rd in goals against and they have the best power play in the league. Their line up may not look scary but John Tortorella has this team all pulling in the same direction and that makes them pretty tough to beat.
The Senators will have to be at their absolute best to hang with the Jackets tonight.
Couple changes expected as the team deals with a bit of the flu. Freddy Claesson is in as it sounds like Mark Borowiecki may be out with the flu. A forward is expected to miss the game too as Casey Bailey has been recalled from Binghamton.
Smith-Brassard-Stone
Dzingel-Turris-Ryan
Hoffman-Pageau-Pyatt
Kelly-Lazar-Neil
Methot-Karlsson
Phaneuf-Ceci
Claesson-Wideman
Mike Condon gets another start in the Ottawa goal. Puck drop is scheduled for just after 7:00 PM.
