As the calendar rolls over to March and as the province of Ontario begins a rollback of COVID measures, the Ottawa Senators are rolling right out of town looking to get on a roll as they visit the rolling Tampa Bay Lightning.
What I’m trying to say is there’s a Sens game tonight, I think.
Tonight’s game is the first of five straight away from the friendly confines of the Canadian Tire Centre. So while the organization announced an update to the vaccination policy at the CTC late yesterday, they won’t actually play another home game until March 10th against something called the Seattle Kraken. Good timing, everyone.
If the Senators looked a little off on Saturday night against the Montreal Canadiens, we now know why.
According to Head Coach DJ Smith they have 8 or 9 guys currently battling a vicious flu that has ripped through the team over the last few days. It sounds like four guys actually tried to play through it with uh mixed results. Thomas Chabot, who sat out Saturday’s game, told the media that he lost a ridiculous 13 pounds. Owen Nolan would not accept this as an excuse of course but it’s hard to know what condition the Senators will be in when they arrive in Tampa Bay. Seems like there is a good chance they may expire entirely.
Game Day skate is scheduled for 11:30 AM so we’ll have a better sense of the lineup then. Practice was cancelled yesterday so a best guess at a lineup for now. Might need to confirm this one later.
Heatley-Spezza-Alfredsson
Tkachuk-Norris-Hossa
Havlat-Stützle-Batherson
Fisher-Yashin-Stone
Chara-Karlsson
Chabot-Redden
Phillips-Volchenkov
Puck drops at eight minutes after the 7:00 PM hour. The game is available on TSN5, TSN1200 and on StreamThoseSens.org.
Wondering how the flu-ridden Senators match-up against the red-hot back-to-back Stanley Cup Champions? About as you would expect, actually. If that assessment isn’t enough, the HEAD2HEAD table can provide all the unfortunate details.
Stupid HEAD2HEAD table.
| HEAD2HEAD |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 19-27-5 (43 pts) | 34-11-6 (74 pts) |
| Goals For | 2.63 (25th) | 3.43 (T-7th) |
| Goals Against | 3.14 (22nd) | 2.75 (8th) |
| Power Play | 16.8% (T-24th) | 20.1% (17th) |
| Penalty Kill | 81.4% (12th) | 80.1% (T-14th) |
| Shots For | 29.9 (20th) | 30.2 (19th) |
| Shots Against | 33.9 (28th) | 29.3 (7th) |
| Leading Scorers | Tkachuk- 37 pts Batherson- 34 pts Brown- 28 pts Chabot- 27 pts Stutzle- 27 pts |
Stamkos- 59 pts Hedman- 51 pts Killorn- 45 pts Point- 36 pts Palat- 33 pts |
| Starting Goalie | Matt Murray 5-10-2 2.65 GAA, .920 sv% |
Andrei Vasilevskiy 28-8-4 2.28 GAA, .921 sv% |
