One of the teams participating in tonight’s game has won back to back games and is heating up down the stretch. The other is in a complete tailspin, having lost six straight and basically looking like a hockey-playing pile of garbage along the way.
One of these teams comes into tonight’s game feeling pretty good about their game with the end of the regular season quickly approaching. The other is feeling the heat lately and can basically see all their hopes and dreams unraveling before their eyes.
The surging Senators visit the plummeting Penguins tonight in Pittsburgh.
When the trade deadline passed, the Penguins looked like they were gearing up for another run at the Stanley Cup. They made a few big deadline moves, adding Jason Zucker, Conor Sheary and Patrick Marleau and in the process, signaled to the rest of the league that they were a force to be reckoned with in the Eastern Conference.
Then they went to California and got swept by the 27th, 28th and 30th place teams.
They’ll face the 29th place Ottawa Senators tonight.
With 16 games to go, the Senators have basically been playing out the string since November. But we’re almost there.Ottawa has a tough month of March to navigate first.
They’ll play 14 games in total, including 10 on the road and two back to backs. Eight of those games are against playoff teams. Any schedule that includes regular match-ups against NHL teams would be tough for this group but this feels like an especially daunting stretch.
A tanker’s dream, really.
And they’ll have to do it without their number one goaltender.
Yesterday, the Senators announced that Marcus Hogberg has returned to Sweden for family reasons. Craig Anderson will take over the reigns as the team’s starting goalie while Filip Gustavsson has been recalled to dress as his back up.
Colin White is back in the line up but Anthony Duclair is not. Duclair is expected to play on Thursday against the Islanders.
Game day skate goes at 11:30 AM this morning so we’ll confirm the line up then. A best guess for now.
Tkachuk-Anisimov-Ryan
Balcers-Tierney-Brown
Paul-White-Hawryluk
Sabourin-Peca-Boedker
Chabot-Hainsey
Reilly-Zaitsev
Englund-Jaros
Craig Anderson gets the start in goal.
Puck drop is scheduled for 7:08 PM which means that dreadful air horn should start blaring seconds later. If you’re at the game tonight, I am offering a cash reward to the person that can snap that thing in half. The game is available on TSN5 and RDS2.
Here’s a closer look at tonight’s match-up.
| HEAD2HEAD |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 23-31-12 (58 pts) | 37-21-6 (80 pts) |
| Goals For | 2.68 (25th) | 3.14 (T-14th) |
| Goals Against | 3.32 (29th) | 2.78 (8th) |
| Power Play | 15.3% (28th) | 20.3% (15th) |
| Penalty Kill | 77.0% (24th) | 81.7% (10th) |
| Shots For | 30.5 (23rd) | 32.0 (12th) |
| Shots Against | 33.7 (29th) | 29.8 (6th) |
| Leading Scorers | Brown- 40 pts Tkachuk- 39 pts Duclair- 37 pts |
Malkin- 63 pts Rust- 50 pts Guentzel- 43 pts |
| Starting Goalie | Craig Anderson 9-15-2 3.21 GAA, .901 sv% |
Tristan Jarry 20-11-1 2.32 GAA, .924 sv% |
