Last night in Washington, the Ottawa Senators rode a hot power play and overcame a 3-1 deficit to register a big 6-4 win over Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals. Twenty four hour later they’ll look for a second straight win against the Vancouver Canucks.
The Vancouver Canucks, like most of the Western Conference, are off to a pretty strong start. They’ve posted a 12-9-5 record which would usually be good enough for a playoff spot but instead has them sitting in the ninth position in the West. Goes to show you just how good the teams have been out West this season.
Not surprisingly, the Canucks are led offensively by Henrik and Daniel Sedin. Henrik leads the team with 25 points with Daniel just behind him with 22. Under new Head Coach John Tortorella, the Canucks have improved their penalty kill drastically, currently sitting at number on in the league. They haven’t been quite so efficient on the power play though, scoring just 11.5% of the time (28th in NHL).
In the last couple of Senators wins, it was the power play that got the job done. Against Washington the Senators scored three times with the man advantage and against the Wings, they scored two power play goals. If the power play can stay hot, Ottawa has a chance to win every night.
Talked about it in yesterday’s game day post and last night, Paul MacLean finally seemed to acknowledge the struggles of Jared Cowen. Cowen played just 12:34 against the Capital which was the lowest of any Senators defenceman. Tonight, the big defenceman finds himself in the press box. It’s a strong message being sent by Paul MacLean here and one that aligns with his commonly repeated approach, “the best players play.” It will be interesting to see how Cowen responds when he does get back into the line up.
No morning skate for the Senators but here is how the home side is expected to line up.
MacArthur-Turris-Ryan
Michalek-Spezza-Zibanejad
Conacher-Smith-Neil
Greening-Grant-Condra
Methot-Karlsson
Phillips-Corvo
Borowiecki-Gryba
Craig Anderson gets the start for the Senators. Roberto Luongo gets the nod for the Canucks. Puck drop is scheduled for just after 7:30 PM
- -Earlier this morning, the Ottawa Senators released their new Heritage Sweater, which they’ll wear when these two teams meet in the Heritage Classic in March. In case you missed this morning’s release, head here to get a look at the new threads. I was a little worried at the image shown in the leaked version yesterday but with today’s official release, I definitely like the look.
