Last night happened. If you’re like me, you woke up thinking it all must have been a horrible nightmare. But it was real. A combination of half assed defence/goaltending and disgustingly awful officiating led to the biggest collapse in franchise history.
The first version of this Game Day post included a lengthy rant about how disgusted I was with the referees last night but at some point, you just need to accept that sub-par officiating is a reality in the National Hockey League. Thankfully all the brightest minds in the game got together at GM’s Meetings last week and decided the only problem with hockey right now was faceoffs. It has reached a point where if the Senators are playing on a Saturday night in Montreal or Toronto, you can be absolutely 100% certain they are going to get the short end of the calls. Every single time.
Anyway, last night happened. But it’s time to move on. Less than 24 hours after the collapse, an angry Ottawa Senators team return home to face the high flying Colorado Avalanche.
If I was realistically talking about playoffs before last night’s game, I probably should before this one as well. Ottawa comes into this evening’s game in a six point hole although it feels more like 60 after last night’s loss. Sports Club Stats gives the Senators a 10% chance of making the playoffs which after last night seems a little high. A win over Colorado and some favourable results from the out of town scoreboard would bring that up to just over 15%. They’ll need to go 10-3-3 to give themselves a shot. So, ya.
No morning skate so we’ll have to wait to hear from MacLean if he has any line up changes planned.
Michalek-Spezza-Hemsky
MacArthur-Turris-Ryan
Greening-Smith-Neil
Hoffman-Zibanejad-Condra
Methot-Karlsson
Phillips-Ceci
Cowen-Gryba
MacLean would not rule Anderson out for this one when he spoke to the media yesterday so we’ll have to wait until a little closer to game time for word on a starter. Puck drop is scheduled for just after 5:00 PM.
