These losses are taking a toll.
After reeling off four straight wins, optimism was at an all-time high. Or the highest it had been in years anyway. It was a good time to be an optimistic hockey blogger. But now, in the depths of a seven game slide, nobody is safe. On Thursday, I tweeted out something about coaching not being the reason they are losing games right now.
Some 30 hours later, strangers are still yelling at me on the internet because of that tweet.
Tensions are high and nobody is safe. The Ottawa Senators look to snap this ugly losing streak when they visit the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday afternoon.
Aside from the obvious motivation of actually winning a frigging hockey game, you would think the Senators will have no problem getting up for this one given how much it will mean to Claude Giroux.
The veteran is making his return to the city where he played the first 1000 games of his NHL career. Giroux was a legend in Philly and it sounds like the Flyers plan to roll out the welcome matt for his return.
Early puck drop in Philadelphia means no Game Day skate but the Sens did practice yesterday and outside of Giroux taking the day off, it seemed like the plan was to roll with the same lineup as Thursday in New Jersey.
We’ll confirm this arrangement closer to game time.
Tkachuk-Stützle-Giroux
DeBrincat-Brassard-Batherson
Motte-Pinto-Joseph
Kelly-Kastelic-Watson
Chabot-Bernard-Docker
Sanderson-Hamonic
Holden-Brannstrom
Cam Talbot gets the start for Ottawa.
Slumps don’t break themselves, by the way. So if you have a good luck charm or a game day routine that never fails, today’s the day. Do your part.
Puck drop is expected to be a little later than usual in Philadelphia with a pregame ceremony of sorts planned for Claude Giroux. Sometime after the 1:00 PM hour though. The game is available on TSN5, TSN1200 and on shady streaming sites all across the world wide web.
Here’s a table.
Here’s THE table.
| HEAD2HEAD |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 4-8-1 (9 pts) | 7-4-2 (16 pts) |
| Goals For | 3.46 (10th) | 2.69 (28th) |
| Goals Against | 3.69 (27th) | 2.62 (6th) |
| Power Play | 21.3% (16th) | 19.5% (22nd) |
| Penalty Kill | 78.0% (18th) | 83.7% (4th) |
| Shots For | 32.5 (11th) | 27.7 (30th) |
| Shots Against | 33.9 (25th) | 35.2 (29th) |
| Leading Scorers | Tkachuk- 16 pts Batherson- 13 pts Giroux- 12 pts DeBrincat- 11 pts Stutzle- 11 pts |
Konecny- 15 pts Hayes- 12 pts DeAngelo- 9 pts Farabee- 8 pts Provorov- 8 pts |
| Starting Goalie | Cam Talbot 0-2-0 2.92 GAA, .897 sv% |
Carter Hart 6-1-2 2.09 GAA, .941 sv% |
