After splitting two games in Florida against the Panthers and Lightning, the Ottawa Senators head to Buffalo for the final stop on this three game road trip.
Thursday night’s game against Tampa Bay was one of the best of the year for the Senators. Led by Mark Stone and Erik Karlsson, the Sens controlled the game from the moment the puck drop and played pretty much a text book road game. It was a much-needed bounce back performance after less than stellar efforts against the Flames and Panthers.
They’ll be looking for more of the same against the Sabres.
As a quick glance at the standings would suggest, it’s been another less than stellar year in Buffalo. They come in with a 20-20-10 record and just 50 points on the season. That record has them sitting in a tie for last place in the Eastern Conference and 27th overall.
Tim Murray has been aggressive in his attempt to make this team into a contender but the rebuild seems to have stalled somewhat this year and maybe even taken a step back. 25th in goals for. 16th in goals against. 29th in penalty kill. And right near the bottom of the league in possession. If not for a solid power play and strong goaltending, this Sabres team could be even lower in the standings.
Despite all that, they seem to always give the Senators trouble. The two teams have met three times this season, with the Sabres picking up 5 of a possible 6 points. The Sabres won 5-4 the last time they met back at the end of November.
Guy Boucher had his team on the ice for practice yesterday and a few players were absent. Erik Karlsson took another maintenance day and both Chris Kelly and Kyle Turris missed the skate with minor injuries. They are both expected to be okay for tonight’s game. No morning skate though so we’ll find out what the Coach has in mind when he meets with the media at 11:45 AM.
We’ll assume same line up for now although I wouldn’t be surprised to see Chris Neil draw back on for Curtis Lazar.
Smith-Brassard-Stone
Dzingel-Turris-Ryan
Hoffman-Pageau-Pyatt
Kelly-Lazar-Wingels
Methot-Karlsson
Phaneuf-Ceci
Borowiecki-Wideman
Mike Condon is expected to start again for Ottawa. Puck drop is scheduled for just after 7:00 PM.
