They’re all big at this point. That’s just sort of how it works when you’re in a situation like this.
But for the Ottawa Senators, it felt like that win over the Seattle Kraken may have been their biggest of the year. Since the last one anyway. Their ability to shake off all sorts of in-game adversity over the course of sixty minutes and then put the hammer down in the third period was another indication this team is just built different. A sign that they won’t go down without a fight.
Yet because of the perilous position the Sens find themselves in, there’s really no time to enjoy it. No time to appreciate the rapid growth of this fast-rising hockey team. No time to appropriately admire the no-quit, fight till the bitter end effort they’re getting from Claude Giroux on a nightly basis. No time to truly reflect on the contributions of a remarkable collection of young talent led by Brady Tkachuk and Tim Stützle. No time to reflect on how quickly this went from a lost season to being right in the thick of it in the Eastern Conference. And no time to really appreciate that even if it’s not this year, there are big things ahead for the Ottawa Senators.
That’s the beauty and tragedy of a frantic, down-to-the-wire playoff push.
The Senators continue this daunting five-game road trip with a stop in Vancouver to take on the Canucks.
After the last couple days, it’s becoming increasingly evident that there’s no season-saving help coming from that damn out-of-town scoreboard. Teams both above and below the Sens continue to rack up points and it’s probably best if we just assume that’s the way it’s going to be down the stretch. The Senators need to take care of their own business and just hope that someone else stumbles along the way.
The business the Senators need to take care of ain’t easy either. In fact, just a glance at the schedule for the month of March stresses me out. One game at a time, as the ol’ saying goes.
Game day skate will be later in the day but you would think DJ Smith rolls out a similar lineup as he did in Seattle. That would mean Nick Holden and Patrick Brown in. Erik Brannstrom and Julien Gauthier out.
We’ll confirm later today though.
Tkachuk-Stützle-Giroux
DeBrincat-Pinto-Batherson
Joseph-Gambrell-Brown
Brassard/Kelly-Kastelic-Watson
Chabot-Zub
Sanderson-Hamonic
Chychrun-Holden
Mads Sogaard is the likely starter.
Puck drop is scheduled for 10:00 PM again but this time, it’s Saturday night so there are no excuses. Cancel those Sunday plans by telling your Aunt Suzy that you got a wicked and unrelenting case of Sens Fever. She’ll understand. The game is available on televisions, radios and streaming devices of all sorts.
The HEAD2HEAD table will arrive late today because, much like Tom Hanks in that movie where he lives in the airport, I live in the airport now. And it is not possible to create such an advanced statistical table on my mobile device.
