Ottawa Rising.
When the Senators marketing team first proclaimed those words back in September 2018, it was met with a collective eye roll on social media.
It was a low point for the franchise and the hashtag, which was accompanied by an unfortunate one-on-one with the team’s Owner, came at a time that the fan base just didn’t want to hear it. The replies to that tweet make that pretty clear.
Honestly, I’m not sure I ever watched the whole video. Until this morning.
971 days after it was first released, I went back to that awkward sit down and actually listened. And what I heard was interesting. While a little light on details and peppered with exaggerations, it was a pretty clear vision for the future of the franchise.
And now, that future is here.
While the Ottawa Senators will ultimately fall short of the playoffs this year, you get sense that wont happen often in the years to come. This team is playing some of their best hockey in recent memory and they are being carried by that young core. And what is painfully obvious recently is they are only scratching the surface of their potential.
Ottawa rising, indeed.
The Senators head to Winnipeg on Saturday night.
With just three games left in their season, it’s clear that this Sens team is intent on finishing the year on a high note.
They’ve gone 7-2-1 in their last ten games and have points in five straight. They sit four points clear of the 7th place Vancouver Canucks and with a win tonight, can jump over the Calgary Flames into 5th in the North Division. A win and the right results on the out-of-town scoreboard would see the Senators jump all the way to 22nd in the league standings.
DJ Smith had the team on the ice for practice yesterday and there were a few interesting developments coming out of that skate. First of all, it looks like Alex Formenton is out tonight and possibly for the rest of the year. It looked like he jammed his wrist on the first hit of Chris Tierney’s career the other night against the Habs.
On the goaltending front, Joey Daccord was back with the main group. He’s been pushing hard and is hoping to get a game in with the BSens before the year is up. Meanwhile Matt Murray, who was expected to miss the rest of the season, is also hoping to get one more start in over the next week.
No game day skate so we’ll wait until DJ Smith meets with the media around 4:25 PM to confirm the lineup. Here’s how they are expected to look in Winnipeg.
Tkachuk-Norris-Batherson
Stützle-Pinto-C.Brown
Paul-White-Dadonov
Dzingel-Tierney-Abramov
Mete-Zaitsev
Brannstrom-Zub
Alsing-Bernard-Docker
No official word on a starting goalie. He’ll be Swedish though.
Puck drop is scheduled for 7:08 PM. The game is available on Sportsnet 360 and CityTV. Only the finest for YOUR Ottawa Senators. TSN1200 has the radio feed and friendly internet pirates will serve up the illegal streams.
Here’s a table.
You call that a table? THIS is a table.
| HEAD2HEAD |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 21-27-5 (47 pts) | 28-21-3 (59 pts) |
| Goals For | 2.75 (19th) | 3.04 (12th) |
| Goals Against | 3.36 (28th) | 2.75 (T-11th) |
| Power Play | 15.8% (26th) | 24.2% (4th) |
| Penalty Kill | 79.1% (18th) | 80.3% (T-13th) |
| Shots For | 30.0 (11th) | 29.5 (17th) |
| Shots Against | 32.1 (27th) | 30.8 (21st) |
| Leading Scorers | Tkachuk- 35 pts Batherson- 33 pts Norris- 33 pts Brown- 31 pts Chabot- 31 pts |
Scheifele- 56 pts Ehlers- 46 pts Connor- 44 pts Copp- 39 pts Wheeler- 39pts |
| Starting Goalie | TBD | TBD |
