They can’t lose every game, right? Right?!
The Ottawa Senators kick-off a grueling and dreadfully timed road trip tonight in Montreal. They’ll play their next seven away from the Canadian Tire Centre in trip that will take them to the other side of North American and back.
It has the potential to be a season-defining stretch for a team that has already lost six straight and is in desperate need of points. While this early-season stumble has certainly hurt the Senators, it hasn’t taken them out of the race completely.
Luckily, there are a couple other Atlantic Division rivals in tailspins right now and 3rd place is still within striking distance.
But they really need to win a game.
And that obviously won’t come easy in a building that has been pretty tough on the Senators in the last couple years and against a goalie that seems to finally be settling into a bit of a groove. After missing a few weeks due to what is rumoured to be an alien abduction of sorts, Price has put together back to back solid outings. Ottawa has had success against him in the past but they’ll need to be at their best to beat him tonight.
On Ottawa’s side of things, coaches and players continue to look for positives. They haven’t been massively outplayed by any means but they just haven’t been able to find a way to win.
Guy Boucher gave his team a couple days off on Sunday and Monday, hoping that the chance for players to recharge their batteries a little bit might help.
#Sens Head Coach Guy Boucher speaks with the media about the importance of rest before the team’s lengthy road trip starting in Montreal. pic.twitter.com/hz3Za1eZAh
— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) November 28, 2017
He also looks like he’s planning on loading up his top line, putting Mark Stone and Mike Hoffman with Matt Duchene. Hopefully they get an extended look together because it feels like they could be a lethal trio. Thomas Chabot is once again the odd-man out on defence.
Hoffman-Duchene-Stone
Smith-Brassard-Ryan
Dzingel-Pageau-Pyatt
Burrows-Thompson-Dumont
Oduya-Karlsson
Phaneuf-Ceci
Claesson-Harpur
Mike Condon gets the start against his former team. Puck drop is scheduled for just after 7:30 PM.
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 8-8-6 (22 pts) | 10-12-3 (23 pts) |
| Goals For | 3.00 (12th) | 2.36 (30th) |
| Goals Against | 3.18 (24th) | 3.20 (T-26th) |
| Power Play | 16.3% (26th) | 15.9% (27th) |
| Penalty Kill | 79.4% (19th) | 77.4% (23rd) |
| Shots For/Shots Against | 30.8 (T-20th) 29.4 (2nd) |
35.3 (3rd) 31.4 (12th) |
| Ice Time Leaders | Karlsson- 25:18 Ceci- 21:50 Stone- 21:05 |
Weber- 26:07 Petry- 22:35 Alzner- 20:46 |
| Leading Scorers | Stone- 23 pts Hoffman- 19 pts Brassard- 17 pts |
Drouin- 16 pts Gallagher- 15 pts Pacioretty- 13 pts |
| Team Save % | .892% (T-28th) | .898% (26th) |
-Darren Dreger took to Insider Trading last night to address the speculation surrounding Ownership of the Ottawa Senators. This is interesting because either the league’s most respected insiders are responding to a tweet on-air or they’ve heard the rumours too. Dreger was pretty careful with his words, confirming that there is considerable interest in the team but stating that the Senators aren’t “for sale”. Well case closed then. Much like that potential three-team trade for Matt Duchene that Dreger said was dead, I guess this is the end of the talk of Ownership re-structuring in Ottawa. Or something like that.
