Yea, it’s a longshot. But that’s how all the best moments in sports history start so where else would you rather be, really?
The Ottawa Senators have their back against the wall right now and they need a miracle. A bunch of things needs to go right all around the league and they need to keep winning. With seven games left in their season, there’s basically zero room for error. They and the out-of-town-scoreboard need to thread the needle over the next couple weeks to pull this off.
But they don’t need to do all of that tonight. Tonight, they just need to win a hockey game. Oh and if you didn’t notice, it’s April 1st and we’re still watching and caring about the outcome of a hockey game.
The Ottawa Senators continue their last stand against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Four hours before the puck even drops at the CTC, a big game in Ottawa’s unlikely push for a spot takes place in Pittsburgh. The Penguins are home to the Bruins and a Boston win would be a great way to start the day. Like Ottawa, the Penguins play twice this weekend as they’ll host the Flyers tomorrow night. It sure would be nice if they could lose both of those.
Couple changes to the Ottawa lineup for this one. Ridly Greig is back after what looked like a potential season-ending sternum injury. He steps in for the injured Derick Brassard. Meanwhile Jacob Bernard-Docker joins the North Dakota party on the Sens blueline, stepping in for the injured Travis Hamonic. Next man up, as the ol’ saying goes.
Here’s how the Sens have arranged themselves at the morning skate.
Tkachuk-Stützle-Giroux
DeBrincat-Pinto-Batherson
Joseph-Greig-Gambrell
Brown-Kastelic-Watson
Sanderson-Zub
Brannstrom-Bernard-Docker
Kleven-Holden
Mads Søgaard gets the start in goal for Ottawa.
Puck drop is scheduled for 7:08 PM at The Tire. The game is available on a CBC, Sportsnet and on the radio at TSN1200. Streams are an option too or you can buy a couple over-priced tickets and help tilt the numbers in our favour a little bit.
Here’s a closer look at this evening’s match-up via a special weekend-edition of the HEAD2HEAD table. It’s exactly the same as the usual HEAD2HEAD table except it’s the weekend!
| HEAD2HEAD |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 44-20-10 (98 pts) | 37-33-5 (79 pts) |
| Goals For | 3.41 (8th) | 3.19 (18th) |
| Goals Against | 2.76 (9th) | 3.24 (19th) |
| Power Play | 25.2% (2nd) | 24.7% (6th) |
| Penalty Kill | 80.3% (14th) | 81.7% (10th) |
| Shots For | 32.0 (13th) | 33.3 (8th) |
| Shots Against | 29.3 (6th) | 31.7 (21st) |
| Leading Scorers | Marner- 95 pts Nylander- 81 pts Matthews- 78 pts Tavares- 75 pts Bunting- 46 pts |
Stützle- 84 pts Tkachuk- 78 pts Giroux- 72 pts DeBrincat- 61 pts Batherson- 58 pts |
| Starting Goalie | Matt Murray 14-8-2 2.96 GAA, .905 sv% |
Mads Søgaard 7-5-2 3.18 GAA, 894 sv% |
