The Ottawa Senators are getting hot at the wrong time.
With Saturday’s 6-3 win over the New York Rangers, the Senators have now won six of their last nine games, going 6-3-0 in the month of February. And they’re gradually starting to work their way up the standings. They sit 28th overall now, within a single point of both Vancouver and Edmonton and with games in hand.
Not great news for the tankers among us. At the same time, a push for a playoff spot would probably require winning at least 20 of their final 25 games. Not good news for the believers among us. Suddenly the Senators are at risk of playing themselves out of a chance at a high draft pick this summer but still nowhere near the playoff picture in the Eastern Conference.
This next stretch of games will be a tough one for the Senators. They are in Nashville tonight, in Chicago on Wednesday, back home to take on the Tampa Bay Lightning and then they host the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday afternoon. On paper, that looks like a brutal stretch leading up to the trade deadline.
It starts tonight against Kyle Turris and the Nashville Predators.
These same two teams met a couple weeks ago, with the Senators ending up on the winning end of a 4-3 final. This is a big game for the Predators as they trail the Winnipge Jets by just two points for top spot in the Central Division. Nashville has a couple games in hand.
Here’s how the Senators are expected to line up for this one.
Hoffman-Duchene-Gaborik
Smith-Brassard-Stone
Paajarvi-Pageau-Pyatt
McCormick-Shore-Dumont
Oduya-Karlsson
Borowiecki-Ceci
Harpur-Chabot
Craig Anderson gets the start in goal for Ottawa. Puck drop is scheduled for just after 8:00 PM.
-There’s no denying that the rumours surrounding Ottawa Captain Erik Karlsson are getting louder with each passing day. With the NHL Trade Deadline now just a week away, various “insiders” continue to drop hints about the possibility that Karlsson could be moved before next Monday. Elliotte Friedman mentioned it on his “31 Thoughts” podcast and then Nick Kypreos hinted at it during the intermission on Saturday night. And while the Senators have been adamant about wanting to keep Karlsson in Ottawa long term, they are absolutely listening. Now, whether or not another team steps up and meets the asking price in the next seven days remaining to be seen.
-This is the time of year where scouting patterns can be a pretty good indication of which teams might be talking leading up to the deadline. For example, the Flames and Golden Knights have had scouts at just about every Ottawa game for the last month or so. Same goes for the Penguins. And then yesterday it was noted that the Senators had someone in Columbus for the Penguins/Blue Jackets game. Makes sense. Both those teams have been linked to Derick Brassard in the last few weeks and in the case of Pittsburgh, it seems like they also have interest in Jean Gabriel Pageau.
