It hasn’t happened often this year but the Senators have a chance to go on a bit of a winning streak.
With wins over the Sabres and Bruins already in the bank, the Sens return home to friendly confines of the Canadian Tire Centre looking for a third straight victory and a fourth straight game with at least a point. It certainly won’t come easy though as they welcome Steven Stamkos and the high-flying Tampa Bay Lightning.
From the moment the puck dropped on the 2014/2015 season, the Lightning have been one of the top teams in the conference. Their offence is the most dangerous in the entire National Hockey League, scoring 3.22 goals per game and only the Nashville Predators score more at 5 on 5. They can roll four lines as well as anyone in the league and their defence is mobile and moves the puck quickly. They also have a pretty goaltender by the name of Ben Bishop although he’s had some rough outings lately.
Should go without saying but this is a pretty difficult back to back for the Senators. They played against a tough Boston team yesterday afternoon while the Lightning waited for them back in Ottawa. The Bolts had won four straight before a 6-3 setback against the Penguins on Friday night.
The biggest change for the Senators comes in between the pipes tonight as Robin Lehner makes his first start in a couple weeks. Just an optional skate for the Senators this morning so we may have to wait until game time to see if Cameron plans on making any changes. Right now it doesn’t look like call-up Chris Wideman will play but that could change prior to game time.
Here’s how the Senators are expected to line up for this one.
MacArthur-Turris-Stone
Hoffman-Zibanejad-Ryan
Michalek-Pageau-Chiasson
Greening-Legwand-Condra
Phillips-Karlsson
Cowen-Ceci
Wiercioch-Gryba
Puck drop is scheduled for just after 7:00 PM with the game available on CityTV and TVA Sports.
Obviously this isn’t the only big hockey game today as Curtis Lazar, Nick Paul and the rest of the Canadian Juniors take on Slovakia in the semi-final of the World Junior Championships. Sweden and Russia play in the other semi-final at 1:00 PM. Between these three hockey games and two NFL playoff games, I plan on watching a whole lot of sports today!
Go Sens. Go Canada. Go Sweden. Go…Indianapolis and Go…Lions.
