Fifteen more to go.
The finish line is in sight for the 29th place Ottawa Senators. Aside from the occasional opportunity to ruin somebody else’s season, there is nothing left to play for. A couple guys might be fighting for a contract, a few of the core guys may be looking to finish the season on a strong note but for the most part, the Senators are just coasting across the finish line.
And that’s probably just fine for Sens fans.
Things are pretty crowded at the bottom of the standings. Falling further is entirely possible and so is jumping up two or three spots. The out of town scoreboard has been quite kind to fans hoping to see the Sens either hold their spot or drop a little further with teams all around them picking up points over the weekend.
And now it’s up to the Senators to take care of business. And by that I mean lose fifteen straight 6-5 games.
Up first- a trip to Sunrise to take on the surging Florida Panthers.
Speaking of ruining somebody’s season, the Senators have a chance to do a little bit of that against the Panthers as the two teams will meet three times this month.
Florida sits two points out of the second Wild Card in the Eastern Conference, desperately trying to chase down the Columbus Blue Jackets for that final spot. They’ve gone an impressive 8-1-1 in their last ten games and they’ve reeled off eight straight wins on home ice. Imagine if they lost to Ottawa on home ice? Rats.
Some news on the injury front yesterday as the Senators announced that Mark Stone will not make the trip to Florida which means he’ll miss at least two games. And based on the way Boucher was talking yesterday, it sounds like there’s a chance it could be more than that. They should know more about his status later today.
No call-ups which means they’ll carry 12 forwards and an extra defenceman in Erik Burgdoerfer. No morning skate today either so a best guess at the line up for now.
Dzingel-Duchene-Hoffman
Paajarvi-Pageau-Gaborik
Ryan-Smith-Pyatt
McCormick-O’Brien-Burrows
Claesson-Karlsson
Harpur-Ceci
Borowiecki-Chabot
Craig Anderson gets the start in goal. The average NHL game lasts 2 hours and 20 minutes.
