With 21 road wins this season, the Ottawa Senators have been one of the league’s top teams on the road. Good thing because that’s where they’ll spend the majority of the remaining two weeks of the NHL’s regular season.
The Sens will play their next four on the road (Philadelphia, Minnesota, Winnipeg, Detroit) and of their remaining eight games, only two are at the Canadian Tire Centre.
Up first, a visit to Philadelphia to take on the Flyers.
While the Senators are relatively secure in their playoff position as the second seed in the Atlantic Division, there are now three teams (Toronto, Boston, Tampa Bay) battling it out for the third. The Senators have a five point cushion over the 3rd place Leafs but with a handful of teams challenging, it’s important to keep banking points here down the stretch. The Bruins (vs. Predators) and Leafs (vs. Panthers) both play tonight too.
The Philadelphia Flyers have just seven games left in their season and six points separating them from the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Not officially eliminated yet but getting pretty close. The reality is they haven’t really been seriously contending for a spot for about a month.
They’re ranked 22nd in both goals for per game and goals against per game and their special teams have been equally underwhelming (15th on the power play, 22nd on the penalty kill). And as is so often the case when it comes to goaltending in Philadelphia, the duo of Steve Mason and Michal Neuvirth just haven’t been good enough.
Just an optional morning skate for the Senators today so we’ll have to wait until Boucher meets with the media to figure out the forward combinations. Viktor Stalberg won’t play tonight and by the sounds of things, neither will Zack Smith, who according to Boucher, isn’t feeling well. The Coach says he may end up going with seven defenceman if Smith can’t go. That means Jyrki Jokipakka could make his Sens debut tonight.
A best guess at the Ottawa line up.
Burrows-Brassard-Stone
Dzingel-Turris-Ryan
Hoffman-Pageau-Pyatt
Kelly-Wingels
Claesson-Karlsson
Phaneuf-Ceci
Borowiecki/Jokipakka-Wideman
Craig Anderson gets the start in the Ottawa goal. Puck drop is scheduled just after 7:00 PM.
