Last night was not it.
It’s not that the Sens played poorly. They generated plenty and gave up basically nothing but when the final horn sounded, they had fewer goals than the opposition. That’s how a lot of losses have looked this season. But with less than a month left in the season, this one hurt a lot more.
The Ottawa Senators will look to get back on track as they host the New York Islanders on Thursday night in Kanata.
It probably goes without saying at this point but you can go ahead and call this one the BIGGEST GAME OF THE YEAR. And with basically every team in the race in action on Thursday, this is the biggest night of the year too. The Senators sit five points back of both Boston and Detroit but with a game in hand. Bruins host the Jets. Red Wings host the Canadiens. Blue Jackets are home to New York.
Gain ground, keep pace or fall too far back. It feels like all three scenarios are in play tonight.
No morning skate today so we’ll assume same lineup for now.
Batherson-Stützle-Giroux
Tkachuk-Cozens-Greig
Cousins-Pinto-Amadio
Foegele-Eller-Zetterlund
Chabot-Zub
Kleven-Spence
Gilbert-Matinpalo
James Reimer is your likely starter.
Puck drops at 7:08 PM in Ottawa. The game is available on TSN5, TSN1200 and 104.7 FM. If streaming is more your speed, keep an eye on the comment section below for a link er two closer to game time.
And now the statistical table you’ve all been waiting for…the HEAD2HEAD table.
| HEAD2HEAD |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 39-24-5 (83 pts) | 34-24-9 (77 pts) |
| Goals For | 2.88 (22nd) | 3.33 (9th) |
| Goals Against | 2.75 (3rd) | 3.12 (21st) |
| Power Play | 16.4% (29th) | 23.0% (9th) |
| Penalty Kill | 82.1% (7th) | 73.7% (30th) |
| Shots For | 28.2 (14th) | 28.9 (9th) |
| Shots Against | 28.1 (18th) | 24.3 (1st) |
| Leading Scorers | Barzal-63 pts Schaefer-49 pts Horvat-47 pts Holmstrom-35 pts Lee-35 pts |
Stutzle-71 pts Batherson-59 pts Cozens-50 pts Sanderson-48 pts Tkachuk-46 pts |
| Starting Goalie | Ilya Sorokin 25-12-2 2.48 GAA, .914 sv% |
James Reimer 4-3-1 2.50 GAA, .882 sv% |