It’s the middle of January. It’s cold. There is something called Thundersnow in the forecast.
The only thing that seems further out of reach than Ottawa’s chances of making the post-season is a warm summer day.
A slumping Western Conference opponent is coming to town. It’s a Wednesday, for crying out loud. Just another regular season game, right?
Wrong.
When the Ottawa Senators play host to the Colorado Avalanche tonight at the Canadian Tire Centre, it will be….THE BIGGEST GAME OF THE YEAR.
Okay, okay- maybe I got a little bit carried away there for a second. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t something on the line in this Avs/Sens showdown.
You may not be aware of this but according to my research, the Colorado Avalanche and their General Manager Joe Sakic currently hold Ottawa’s first round pick. Crazy, right? Well it’s true. They stole it from us and it seems as though they have no intention of giving it back.
Pierre Dorion traded that pick to the Avs back in November of 2017 to acquire Matt Duchene. It seemed like a reasonable price to pay at the time but things have unraveled for the Senators since then.
Thanks to a unfortunate series of events (Melnyk running out of money), Ottawa now finds themselves smack dab in the middle of a rebuild. Except uhh, they don’t have a first round pick. So instead of four or five months of nothing but tank gifs in the comment section, we are forced to actually cheer for our team to win hockey games. Bizarre concept.
Unfortunately, our dear Sens find themselves in the NHL’s basement. But with a win, they could move as high as 28th.
These two points take on a little extra meaning because we want ’em and our opponent desperately wants to deprive of us of them. Also, it’s Matt Duchene’s birthday. Big game, right?!
Give me a break. I’ve had to write 47 of these damn things.
Okay, so some good news on the line up front. Thomas Chabot is back which means zone exits with control of the puck are back too. Matt Duchene returns which means control of the puck in the offensive zone is also making its return.
Game Day skate goes at 10:30 AM but a best guess at the line up for now.
Tkachuk-Tierney-Stone
Dzingel-Duchene-Ryan
Smith-Pageau-Paajarvi
Balcers-Paul-Boedker
Chabot-DeMelo
Lajoie-Ceci
Wolanin-Jaros
Borowiecki
Anders Nilsson makes another start in goal for Ottawa. We’re back in the Eastern time zone which means a reasonable start time. 7:08 PM, folks.
As I mentioned earlier, it’s Wednesday, which means Sportsnet has the broadcast. Eww. Because I know Sportsnet can be pretty unpopular around these parts, how bout we all send a message and buy tickets to the game?! That’ll teach ’em. Or, if you’d like to hide from the THUNDERSNOW, streams are likely available.
Voici une table.
| HEAD2HEAD |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 21-17-8 (50 pts) | 17-24-5 (39 pts) |
| Goals For | 3.41 (7th) | 3.11 (11th) |
| Goals Against | 3.17 (23rd) | 3.87 (31st) |
| Power Play | 25.0% (6th) | 21.3% (13th) |
| Penalty Kill | 76.4% (27th) | 75.0% (29th) |
| Shots For | 32.3 (12th) | 29.1 (25th) |
| Shots Against | 31.1 (T-14th) | 36.9 (31st) |
| Leading Scorers | Rantanen- 69 pts MacKinnon- 66 pts Landeskog- 52 pts |
Stone- 48 pts Duchene- 42 pts Chabot- 38 pts |
| Starting Goalie | Semyon Varlamov 12-10-5 2.83 GAA, .908 sv% |
Anders Nilsson 5-11-1 2.91 GAA, .902 sv% |
-With the NHL Trade Deadline now just a little over a month away, the clock is ticking on Sens GM Pierre Dorion. It’s no secret that Ottawa has three prominent players on the team approaching UFA status and it’s also obvious that losing any of those players for nothing is not an option for the 31st place Sens. And that’s why it sounds like Dorion is ramping up his attempt to either sign Mark Stone, Matt Duchene and Ryan Dzingel or prepare to trade them in advance of the February 26th deadline. And according to Bruce Garrioch, that includes a face to face meeting with Pat Brisson (Duchene’s agent) in Los Angeles this week. Those two have met a few times and you would assume this time, both sides will want to leave the meeting with a clear sense of where things are headed. Dorion held similar face to face discussions with Mark Stone’s agent in Florida last weekend.
