In case you haven’t looked at the NHL standings in awhile, well don’t.
Despite winning a few games recently, the Ottawa Senators still find themselves stuck in a tie for 31st overall. And in case you haven’t counted the number of teams in the NHL recently, well uhh don’t do that either.
In this nightmare of a season, there are two goals. The first is to provide young players and prospects with an opportunity to grow. Whether it’s here in Ottawa or in the American Hockey League, development is key this year. The other goal is don’t finish in last fucking place.
That second goal is more spiteful than anything but the higher the Senators can climb, the better. We all know those stupid lottery balls will find us anyway but it’s important to hide from them as best we can.
The good news is while the Senators are tied for last place, things are still pretty jammed up down there. Three teams are tied with Ottawa at the bottom (New Jersey, Chicago and Detroit) and then another two teams (Philadelphia and Los Angeles) sit just a single point clear. And then if you really want to get crazy, there are five more teams all within six points.
So a fine time to string some wins together, right?!
Which brings me to the other bad news.
After tonight’s game against the Arizona Coyotes, the Ottawa Senators never play again. That’s right, according to the schedule, this appears to be the last game in the history of the franchise. It’s been a good ride though. There were some good times (The Cup run) and some bad (whatever is happening right now). We laughed (at Bryan McCabe), we cried (stupid Chris Kunitz) and we learned a little bit about ourselves along the way.
Goodbye, dear Sens. You will be missed.
Let’s see if we can go out on a high note though.
Tonight’s opposition is the most commonly forgotten franchise in all of sports. If you are reading this Shane Doan, I’m sorry but it’s true. The Arizona “Don’t call me Phoenix” Coyotes are still an NHL franchise though. Of that I am fairly certain. Here are some facts about the Coyotes.
-They were very nearly named the “Scorpions”.
-Nobody knows who owns the Coyotes yet still their Ownership situation is more stable than Ottawa’s.
-Their General Manager was once a popular entertainer at Sens games back in the Civic Centre days.
-Their mascot is named Howler
And basically that’s all you need to know.
Guy Boucher had a little chat with the media after practice and about an hour in, revealed some potential line up notes ahead of this one. Mark Borowiecki is considered a game-time decision with a lower-body injury. Justin Falk was back on the ice for practice cleared waivers and is headed back to Belleville. Colin White skated but won’t return until after the NINE DAY BREAK.
Sounds like the plan is to go with 11 forwards and 7 defenceman because…umm well because…well I’m not really sure why that’s the plan. Rudolfs Balcers is the odd man out up front.
A best guess at the line up for now.
Dzingel-Duchene-Ryan
Tkachuk-Tierney-Stone
Smith-Pageau-Paajarvi
Paul-Boedker
Chabot-DeMelo
Lajoie-Ceci
Harpur-Jaros
Wolanin
Craig Anderson makes another start in goal for Ottawa. Puck drop is scheduled for just after 7:30 PM.
The game is available on TSN5, RDS or if you just need that Yotes/Sens fix, there are probably interweb streams available.
Here is a hand-crafted table featuring the what’s what on this evening’s match up.
| HEAD2HEAD |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 22-22-4 (48 pts) | 19-25-4 (43 pts) |
| Goals For | 2.63 (28th) | 3.14 (10th) |
| Goals Against | 2.85 (T-9th) | 3.76 (31st) |
| Power Play | 18.1% (19th) | 20.6% (14th) |
| Penalty Kill | 87.2% (1st) | 75.4% (29th) |
| Shots For | 30.6 (21st) | 29.1 (25th) |
| Shots Against | 30.3 10th) | 36.7 (31st) |
| Leading Scorers | Keller- 34 pts Ekman-Larsson- 26 pts Galchenyuk- 25 pts |
Stone- 50 pts Duchene- 46 pts Chabot- 39 pts |
| Starting Goalie | Darcy Kuemper 10-11-4 2.66 GAA, .914 sv% |
Craig Anderson 14-14-3 3.56 GAA, .906 sv% |
I have it on good authority that I am currently trailing in the voting for Faces Magazine Blogger of the Year. Which means, we are ALL losing. Let’s fix that shall we. Multiple devices. Various IP addresses. Time to pull out all the stops.
