With both the Canadiens and Bruins on a bye this week, the Ottawa Senators have a chance to build a bit of a cushion over Boston and close the gap on the free-falling Montreal Canadiens.
Ottawa comes into this one with five games in hand on both teams and they need to take advantage of them. As we’ve found out the hard way this season- it won’t be easy against the Buffalo Sabres.
For whatever reason, the Senators just haven’t been able to find their game against the Sabres. Robin Lehner’s play against his former team is a big part of it obviously. The Sabres are in Ottawa’s head a little bit and it’s forced Guy Boucher’s team to get away from what has made them successful. That 4-0 debacle in Buffalo ten days ago was dreadful.
And while the Sabres have looked like world beaters any time they take on the Senators, they still find themselves five points back of a playoff spot in the East. And their 4-5-1 record in their last ten really isn’t helping them close the gap. They followed up an impressive Saturday night win over the Leafs with a bit of a clunker against the Canucks the next day. That’s the way it has been for the Sabres for a while now. They have moments where they look like a solid team but they just haven’t been able to string wins together.
Guy Boucher spoke with the media yesterday and suggested he’ll make one change to his line up. Chris Neil is expected to draw back in but it wasn’t clear who would come out. Freddy Claesson is the safe bet, assuming Boucher wants to go with 12 forwards again.
Just an optional morning skate but a best guess at Ottawa’s line up for this one.
Dzingel-Brassard-Stone
Smith-Turris-Hoffman
Pyatt-Pageau-Ryan
Neil-Kelly-Wingels
Methot-Karlsson
Phaneuf-Ceci
Borowiecki-Wideman
Craig Anderson gets the start in the Ottawa goal. Puck drop is scheduled for just after 7:30 PM.
***
-Pierre Dorion was on TSN1200 yesterday afternoon and he poured more cold water on the possibility of a big move at this year’s deadline. While he confirmed that he has at least spoken to Colorado Avalanche GM Joe Sakic, he made it clear that at this point anyway, the prices are just way too high. Especially when it comes to Matt Duchene or Gabriel Landeskog. In an article published last night, Bruce Garrioch suggested that it would take “defenceman Cody Ceci, a first-round pick in 2017, along with one of the club’s two blue-chip prospects — Saint John blueliner Thomas Chabot or Boston College centre Colin White — plus a couple of other parts” to get a deal done. Full credit to Dorion if he was able to contain his laughter after that proposal.
-Another thing from Dorion’s interview yesterday- they have held preliminary discussions with agents for both Mike Condon and Tom Pyatt. It’s clear Dorion isn’t in any hurry to get something done with either of those guys but they’ve talked. He also mentioned that he’s had a conversation with Pageau’s agent but that they’ll wait until the off season on that one. Going to be really interesting to see what he gets on his next deal. The Sens RFA playbook focuses on keeping salary low as long as possible to I expect the same sort of contract for Pageau. JGP is making $1.1 mil this season.
-It’s been mentioned a few times in the last week or so but from what I heard last night, teams are definitely calling about Curtis Lazar but it’s a situation where they are trying to take him off of Ottawa’s hands rather than actually give something of value up for him. Everyone is pretty down on Lazar this season and with good reason. But if they are to move him before this year’s deadline, it’s pretty clear that they would be selling at rock bottom. Probably not the best approach.
