For those not following along closely at home there is an interesting thing happening in the SCOTIABANK High-interest Savings Account Division of the NORTH or whatever the hell it’s called.
All the teams are bad.
While the Ottawa Senators currently occupy the basement, it’s becoming abundantly clear that there are six other serious contenders for that spot.
The Oilers and Canucks both got off to dreadful starts. The Leafs and Canadiens fancy themselves contenders but last night they both looked every bit as dreadful in losses to those aforementioned dreadful teams. The Senators skated circles around the Jets on Tuesday night and one has to assume the Flames will just be dreadful by association.
The point is, in the early going anyway, no team is really standing out. Yet four playoff spots are there for the taking.
And that’s why, I am officially declaring tonight’s game against the Winnipeg Jets…
THE BIGGEST GAME OF THE YEAR! (so far).
Plenty of positives for the Senators to build on heading into game two of a three-game set. Ottawa was clearly the better team for a solid 58 minutes on Tuesday night and every part of their game was clicking. Aggressive on the forecheck, shooting from everywhere and the power play was buzzing.
Too bad Cedric Paquette ruined EVERYTHING.
DJ Smith met with the media just after 4:15 PM and confirmed Colin White takes the spot of Artem Anisimov. Filip Chlapik joined the team at practice yesterday but won’t play. Meanwhile Tim Stützle skated on his own today but misses a second straight game.
Rest of the line up remains unchanged.
Tkachuk-Norris-Batherson
Galchenyuk-Stepan-Dadonov
Paul-Tierney-C. Brown
Paquette-White-Watson
Chabot-Gudbranson
Reilly-Zaitsev
Coburn-J. Brown
No word on a starting goalie right now but this might be a good time to give Marcus Hogberg his first start of the season.
Puck drop is scheduled for just after 7:00 PM and the game is available on TSN5, RDS and TSN1200. If illegal internet streaming is more your thing, helpful pirates will have you covered all across the information super-highway.
IT’S TABLE TIME!
| HEAD2HEAD |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 3-1-0 (6 pts) | 1-2-1 (3 pts) |
| Goals For | 3.25 (11th) | 2.75 (T-19th) |
| Goals Against | 2.50 (10th) | 3.50 (25th) |
| Power Play | 10% (24th) | 16.7% (20th) |
| Penalty Kill | 66.7% (27th) | 81.0% (16rd) |
| Shots For | 29.8 (T-18th) | 28.3 (23rd) |
| Shots Against | 33.5 (26th) | 30.0 (15th) |
| Leading Scorers | Connor- 7 pts Scheifele- 5 pts Wheeler- 4 pts Ehlers- 4 pts |
Zaitsev- 5pts Tierney- 3 pts Norris- 3 pts Tkachuk- 3 pts |
| Starting Goalie | TBD | TBD |
