Things really haven’t gone the Senators’ way the last little while and it certainly doesn’t get any easier this weekend.
Ottawa will play a tough back to back that starts with an afternoon game in Pittsburgh today. They’ll return home right after the game to take on the Vancouver Canucks tomorrow night. Two tough match ups but if the Senators want to crawl back into the playoff race in the Eastern Conference, they have to find some points this weekend.
The Senators have been able to clean up some of the issues in their own end the last few games but now it seems like the offence has started to dry up. Ottawa has lost four straight and scored just six goals in the process. Against a team like the Penguins, who score goals in bunches, one or two goals isn’t likely to get it done. A strong start would go a long way to easing some of the pressure on the offence who have been “chasing the game” far too often during their recent slump.
The Penguins meanwhile, have been one of the most impressive teams in the Eastern Conference through the first quarter of the season. Their 17-6-2 record has them three points back of the Conference-leading Tampa Bay Lightning. No surprise but Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin have led the way offensively for this Pittsburgh team. Crosby’s 33 points are first in the National Hockey League with his teammate Evgeni Malkin trailing him by just 3 points.
Certainly don’t want to get into a special teams battle with the Penguins. Their power play is ranked first, hovering at about a 30% success rate while their penalty kills is ranked fourth. Gotta stay out of the box this afternoon.
Here’s how the Senators are expected to line up for this one.
MacArthur-Turris-Condra
Hoffman-Zibanejad-Ryan
Michalek-Lazar-Chiasson
Legwand-Smith-Neil
Methot-Karlsson
Phillips-Ceci
Borowiecki-Gryba
Craig Anderson gets the start in the Ottawa goal. Puck drop is scheduled for just after 1:00 PM with the game available on TSN5.
