It has become abundantly clear that the Ottawa Senators won’t have much to play for this season.
While the draft lottery, the draft itself and the off-season that follows are likely to be some of the most important days in the history of the franchise, it’s going to be some time before the Sens play meaningful hockey again. Maybe as early as next season but that’s a long time to wait.
And that’s what makes the Belleville Senators so interesting right now.
Driven primarily by the top prospects in the organization, the BSens are one of the best stories in the AHL. Despite a bunch of injuries and regularly losing their best players to Ottawa, Troy Mann has his team in the thick of a playoff race.
An eight-game, 16-day road trip had the potential to derail that push for the post-season but instead, it has only strengthened their position. They’ve won five of seven on the trip so far and find themselves tied with the Utica Comets for top spot in the division.
They take on those Comets tonight. You know what that means…
IT’S THE BIGGEST GAME OF THE YEAR!
Until tomorrow night that is, when the same two teams meet back in Belleville.
IT’S THE TWO BIGGEST GAMES OF THE YEAR!
We’ll confirm the line up later today but it sounds like Jonathan Davidsson, Jordan Szwarz, JC Beaudin, Max Veronneau and Christian Jaros are out for the Senators.
Here’s how they lined up last time out.
Formenton-Brown-Balcers
Abramov-Norris-Batherson
Klimchuk-Chlapik-Carcone
Kelly-Labate
Brannstrom-Labrie
Murray-Dougherty
Englund-Corrado
Dougherty
No word on a starting goalie yet but Joey Daccord and Filip Gustavsson are expected to split the starts.
| HEAD2HEAD |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 25-14-3-1 (54 pts) | 25-15-2-2 (54 pts) |
| Goals For | 156 (2nd) | 158 (1st) |
| Goals Against | 132 (19th) | 137 (25th) |
| Power Play | 18.6% (14th) | 22.2% (6th) |
| Penalty Kill | 79.2% (27th) | 82.5% (13th) |
| Leading Scorers | Batherson- 43 pts Norris- 40 pts Formenton- 33 pts Abramov- 28 pts Balcers- 26 pts |
Boucher- 50 pts Goldobin- 41 pts Lind- 38 pts Bailey- 37 pts Rafferty- 37 pts |
| Starting Goalie | TBD | Michael DiPietro 13-6-1 2.76 GAA, .905 sv% |
