The Ottawa Senators, or Sénateurs d’Ottawa, are a professional ice hockey team plying their trade in the National Hockey League.
Founded by Bruce Firestone, Cyril Leeder and Randy Sexton, the modern-day Senators returned in the 1992-1993 season. Since then, they have amassed a record of 901-839-115-149 for a total of 2066 points. They have picked up four Division titles, one President’s Trophy and they have one appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals.
This year’s squad has been labelled a rebuilding team although their early performance, especially from young players like defenceman Thomas Chabot, suggests they could exceed the rock-bottom expectations set out by the experts back in September.
And this is SensChirp. An oddly popular website where passionate Sens fans from around the world gather to discuss, debate and frankly, obsess over the team they love. And I am Dave, or SensChirp I suppose, and for the last 10 years, I have been the self-elected Mayor of this wacky community.
Sorry, it has been so damn long since this team last played a game, I thought maybe a reintroduction was in order.
After three long days, the Ottawa Senators return to action tonight as they kick-off a three game home-stand, against the Detroit Red Wings.
Like the Sens, the Red Wings came into this season with fairly low expectations. Yet in the early going, they too have shown some signs of life that many had assumed wouldn’t be there this year. And especially lately, where they have reeled off four straight wins, outscoring the opposition to the tune of 16-8 along the way.
The young and dynamic Filip Zadina is leading the way, registering an impressive 0 goals and 0 assists through his first 0 games played in the NHL. Surely he’ll be eager to fill Ottawa’s net with pucks this evening.
Big night for one of Ottawa’s top prospects as Drake Batherson makes his NHL debut. Batherson ripped up the American Hockey League, with 20 points through his first 14 games and made it basically impossible to keep him down there any longer. And he’s not just here to warm the bench. He’ll start the game on Ottawa’s top line and based on practice combinations, is likely to start on one of the two power play units. Should be fun to watch one of the organization’s fastest rising prospects.
Zack Smith also returns, Colin White is good to go and Mark Borowiecki is also expected to play. Max McCormick and Christian Jaros appear to be the healthy scratches.
Try not to get lost in the beauty of those first three lines.
Boedker-Duchene-Batherson
Tkachuk-White-Stone
Dzingel-Tierney-Ryan
Paajarvi-Smith-Pyatt
Chabot-DeMelo
Lajoie-Ceci
Borowiecki-Wideman
Craig Anderson gets the start in net for Ottawa. Puck drop is scheduled for today, if you can believe it. 7:30 PM.
The game is available on TSN5, RDS2 and should be available for streaming to those willing to close 5 or 6 shady and potentially computer-melting pop-ups. Have fun!
Tonight is also Ottawa’s Hockey Fights Cancer game and even if you’re not at the CTC, there are ways you can still get involved. More information here.
Join the Fight! When you support #HockeyFacesCancer you are helping the @CCSOttawa improve the quality of life of those touched by cancer. pic.twitter.com/3FyYChABEQ
— Ottawa Senators Foundation (@sensfoundation) November 13, 2018
And now, an expertly-crafted table, that should tell you every possible thing you could ever want to know about the Detroit Red Wings and the Ottawa Senators.
| HEAD2HEAD |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 8-8-2 (18 pts) | 7-8-3 (17 pts) |
| Goals For | 2.83 (T-23rd) | 3.44 (4th) |
| Goals Against | 3.33 (T-24th) | 4.22 (31st) |
| Power Play | 24.1% (8th) | 27.1% (6th) |
| Penalty Kill | 81.2% (13th) | 67.2% (31st) |
| Shots For | 28.4 (28th) | 29.6 (25th) |
| Shots Against | 35.2 (29th) | 38.7 (31st) |
| Leading Scorers | Larkin- 18 pts Nyquist- 15 pts Athanasiou- 12 pts |
Chabot- 22 pts Stone- 20 pts Duchene- 19 pts |
| Starting Goalie | Jimmy Howard 6-5-2 2.69 GAA, .920 sv% |
Craig Anderson 7-5-3 3.70 GAA, .905% |
