It’s only fitting.
It’s hard to remember a Sens season with such dramatic swings. So it’s only fitting that with eight games remaining in the 82-game schedule, the Sens need to find a way to snap out of it one more time. Tuesday night’s ugly loss was a third straight for Ottawa and a blow to their teetering playoff hopes. But there’s still a chance to right the ship one more time.
The Ottawa Senators host the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday night in Kanata.
Tonight is the first game of a five-game homestand with some top teams coming to town. When you add in the reality that the Senators probably need to win six of their remaining eight games to get in, it really doesn’t get much bigger than this. The out-of-town scoreboard is littered with other important games too so it’s safe to say your mood will be dramatically impacted by tonight’s proceedings.
Travis Green has his team on the ice for a game day twirl and it looks like the Senators are going to be without Jake Sanderson again as he remains in a non-contact jersey. Someone named Cameron Crotty has been recalled from Belleville with Carter Yakemchuk out. Huh.
Zetterlund-Stützle-Batherson
Tkachuk-Cozens-Greig
Giroux-Pinto-Amadio
Foegele-Eller-Cousins
Kleven-Zub
Matinpalo-Spence
Thomson-Crotty
Linus Ullmark starts.
Puck drops at 7:08 PM. The game is on TSN5, TSN1200 and 104.7 FM. Streams are an option too. But respectfully, if you have the means, your team needs you tonight. Head down to the CTC and yell like the season depends on it. Because it might.
A closer look at this evening’s match-up…
| HEAD2HEAD |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 46-21-8 (100 pts) | 38-26-10 (86 pts) |
| Goals For | 3.44 (7th) | 3.30 (10th) |
| Goals Against | 2.95 (10th) | 3.09 (20th) |
| Power Play | 21.4% (15th) | 22.4% (11th) |
| Penalty Kill | 81.7% (5th) | 74.7% (30th) |
| Shots For | 28.2 (16th) | 28.9 (9th) |
| Shots Against | 29.4 (24th) | 24.4 (3rd) |
| Leading Scorers | Thompson-78 pts Dahlin-67 pts Tuch-60 pts McLeod-50 pts Quinn-49 pts |
Stutzle-76 pts Batherson-64 pts Cozens-52 pts Tkachuk-51 pts Sanderson-48 pts |
| Starting Goalie | Alex Lyon 20-9-4 2.54 GAA, .910 sv% |
Linus Ullmark 23-11-8 2.79 GAA, .886 sv% |