After cruising to a three goal win in Dallas and rallying for another two points in Arizona, the Ottawa Senators close out their three game road trip against the league’s worst team in the Colorado Avalanche.
Heading into this three game Western swing, there was plenty of talk about the need to keep banking points. About needing to keep their collective foot on the gas. Mission accomplished so far for Guy Boucher’s group.
Despite dealing with some crucial injuries, the Senators found a way against the Stars and Coyotes. They’ll need to do the same against these struggling Avalanche.
The Senators head into tonight with just two points separating them from top spot in the Atlantic Division. Ottawa has two games in hand on Montreal and the Canadiens have a rare Saturday night off.
Time to make a move.
There’s no need to go into great detail about the struggles of this Colorado team. They are at the bottom of the league and they’ve been there are all year. They can’t score, they can’t keep the puck out of their own net and despite having some talented players on their roster, they just haven’t been able to play with any level of consistency.
Now with all that said, there are no easy games in the National Hockey League. As the Senators saw when they played this same Avalanche team back in Ottawa, they are more than capable of making a game of it. And now with a few key players out of the line, Ottawa will have to dig deep to end this road trip on a high note in Colorado.
Mark Stone left the game on Thursday night and won’t play tonight. Kyle Turris has missed the last couple and is out again. Phil Varone was called up from Binghamton and is expected to draw in for the Senators. Mark Borowiecki will miss a second straight game with what is pretty much an entire body injury at this point in the season.
No morning skate today as the Head Coach continues to prioritize rest down the stretch. Boucher said he’ll keep the Hoffman-Pageau-Pyatt line and the Stalberg-Kelly-Wingels lines together. The other two are anyone’s guess.
Varone-Brassard-Burrows
Hoffman-Pageau-Pyatt
Dzingel-Smith-DiDomenico
Stalberg-Kelly-Wingels
Methot-Karlsson
Phaneuf-Ceci
Claesson-Wideman
Craig Anderson gets the start in the Ottawa goal. Puck drop is scheduled for just after 7:00 PM.
