The Ottawa Senators won again last night.
They seem to be making a bit of a habit of that lately, actually. With the pressure off and with what looks like an AHL line up to the untrained eye, the Sens are playing some of their best hockey of the season. Some of their best hockey in a couple seasons, in fact.
After last night’s convincing win over the New York Rangers, the Senators have now won six of their last ten. That pace over a full season and they would be in the mix for a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. But alas, they instead find themselves stuck in the basement of the National Hockey League with no chance of escape.
The Senators continue their surprisingly strong push for the finish line when they visit Jack Eichel’s hair in Buffalo.
***
The guys were louder than usual.
There are times when the only sound you can hear is the plane preparing for take off or Nilly and Mags babbling in Swedish but tonight was different.
There’s just something about a trip to Madison Square Garden that always seems to bring the best out of this team. It was like that before he arrived and it’s that way now.
Brady settled into his usual seat (Bobby’s just to mess with him) and reflected on the game that had wrapped up only a couple hours earlier. Another gino, obviously. What was that now? 22? More than Matthew in his rookie year, that’s for damn sure. Probably more than my old man too, actually. Too bad they didn’t keep stats in the original six days, he chuckled to himself.
The win was nice, the goal too, but it was the look on their faces, the sound of the crowd. That’s how he really knew he had got to ‘em.
“How’s the neck, bud?” It was Andy. Brady knew exactly what he was talking about too. He wasn’t shy about selling it a bit to get a call but that was on another level.
“Seriously mighta pulled something”, he replied. Anything to get under their skin though.
“Gibby’s flying the plane tonight, boys”, Brady yelled out, loud enough that everyone could hear. The only volume he had, really. Truth was, he had no idea what Gibby’s first name was. Or where he came from. Just seemed like out of nowhere, this little lad showed up in the room, sat down right where Stoney usually sits, and that was that. That little fella could play though.
***
While the Senators have been finding ways to scrape some wins together down the stretch, the Buffalo Sabres have been Buffalo Sabreing pretty hard. They’ve lost eight straight and are actually one of the few teams near the bottom of the standings that seems to give a hoot about improving their percentages in the draft lottery.
They’ve fallen all the way to 28th thanks to this recent stretch and could still fall another couple spots if they can keep the tank rolling.
On Ottawa’s side of things, all eyes will be on the goal crease, as 22 year old Joey Daccord makes his NHL debut.
Drafted in the 7th round back in 2015, Daccord was a long-shot to ever play in the NHL. Listening to Sens goalie coach Pierre Groulx talk about it, it sounded the Senators were pretty skeptical at first too. But his game has come a long way in the last couple years, to the point where he was considered one of the best goalies in the NCAA.
And now, we’ll find out how his game translates at the pro level.
***
Brady reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of croutons. Little snack for the road, he thought.
“Want one, Cody?”
“Hell ya!”
Brady tossed him one. Cody bobbled it and it fell to the floor.
“Next time, bud” Brady reassured him.
It was a short flight but still plenty of time for Brady to game plan for their next opponent.
First shift of the game, I’ll just skate to the top of the crease and make like a buzzing sound. Second shift, I’ll find the tallest guy on the ice and just shove him for no reason. Then on the way off, just chirp the hell out of Phil Housley. Something about that god awful Jofa bucket he used to wear, probably. Offer to cut Eichel’s hair for him. Basic stuff, really.
“Brrrrrrady, that’s my seat”. Shit, Bobby looked pissed.
***
Will be interesting to see what Crawford does with his line up ahead of this one.
Mikkel Boedker was the healthy scratch again last night despite signs that Bobby Ryan might be the odd man out. But he scored last night so it will be tough to take him out. Christian Wolanin was demoted and recalled within the span of 24 hours and likely plays again. Ben Harpur is sick. Not like the kids say sick but actually ill. Again, not ill like the kids say but just not feeling well.
We’ll assume same line up for now.
Balcers-Pageau-Veronneau
Tkachuk-White-Gibbons
Duclair-Tierney-Ryan
Smith-Lindberg-Paajarvi/Boedker
Chabot-DeMelo
Englund-Ceci
Harpur-Jaros
Joey Daccord gets the start in goal. Puck drop is scheduled for just after 7:00 PM.
The game is available on TSN5, RDS2 and unfortunately no streams will be available because frankly, it’s a questionable use of bandwidth.
Here’s your damn table.
| HEAD2HEAD |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 29-45-6 (64 pts) | 31-39-10 (72 pts) |
| Goals For | 2.98 (15th) | 2.61 (27th) |
| Goals Against | 3.63 (31st) | 3.31 (T-25th) |
| Power Play | 20.7% (11th) | 18.2% (18th) |
| Penalty Kill | 79.8% (21st) | 80.8% (13th) |
| Shots For | 29.7 (24th) | 32.8 (8th) |
| Shots Against | 35.8 (31st) | 33.2 (25th) |
| Leading Scorers | Chabot- 54 pts Tierney- 47 pts Tkachuk- 45 pts |
Eichel- 77 pts Reinhart- 62 pts Skinner- 61 pts |
| Starting Goalie | Joey Daccord 0-0-0 0.00 GAA, .000 sv% |
Carter Hutton 17-25-5 3.02 GAA, .908 sv% |
