Remember those old Choose Your Own Adventure books you’d read as a kid? They never made any damn sense but man were they a hoot.
Well, presenting, the Choose Your Own Adventure Game Day post!
1- Generic statement about time left in the season OR 2- Generic statement about Ottawa’s improved play lately?
With just six games remaining in the NHL’s regular season, time is winding down on this nightmare of a season.
While the Senators have struggled for most of the season and remain in last place in the NHL, there have been signs of life lately.
1- Comment about how we’ll miss them when their gone OR 2- Comment about building momentum heading into next season?
But as unpleasant as this season has been, when it’s all said and done, we’ll miss them when they’re gone. As soon as the final horn sounds vs. Columbus in a couple weeks, almost immediately we’ll start counting down the days till the first grainy stream of a rookie camp 3 on 3 scrimmage.
Marc Crawford has done a surprisingly good job with this underwhelming roster and actually given the team something to build on heading into next season. The result may not mean much but it’s all about building momentum, whatever the hell that means, heading into next year.
1- Vague statement about the game and tonight’s opponent with a shot at Mike Hoffman OR 2- Vague statement about tonight’s opponent with a comment on how bad the Panthers have been lately?
The Ottawa Senators will look to stretch their winning streak to an unthinkable three games when they take on their ol’ buddy and zero-time Selke Trophy nominee Mike Hoffman and the Florida Panthers.
The Ottawa Senators will look to keep things rolling when they host the free-falling Florida Fanthers.
1- Long meandering paragraph about a strange season in Florida OR 2- Long meandering paragraph about the Sens finding meaning in these games down the stretch?
The Panthers have to be one of the league’s most disappointing teams this season. On paper, their line up looks like it should be pretty dangerous. Aleksander Barkov is by far the most underrated Aleksander in the league and he’s surrounded by a quality supporting cast that includes guys like Jonathan Huberdeau, Aaron Ekblad, Vincent Trochek and Mike Hoffman, who they basically stole from poor ol’ Pierre Dorion. Yet for whatever reason (they allow a horrifying number of goals), they just haven’t been able to put it all together this year. Any chance they had of making the playoffs has evaporated in spectacular fashion lately. They have allowed a stunning 20 goals in their last three games.
There really isn’t much left to play for in these final six games. Operation Don’t Finish Last is on life-support and looking at the schedule, they may only have one real chance left to play spoiler and that comes in the final game of the season against Columbus. As hilarious as it would be to knock Matt Duchene and Ryan Dzingel out of the playoffs (and maybe Jarmo Kekalainen out of a job), it’s going to be challenging for this group to find reasons to stay engaged down the stretch. Although to their credit, playing out the string has looked pretty good on them so far.
1- Polite reference to the game day skate and the current status of the line up OR 2- An unnecessary shot at the potential return of Ceci and Smith?
Marc Crawford will have his team on the ice for the game day skate in a little bit so we’ll know more about the line up then. There’s a chance Cody Ceci could be ready to return to the line up while Zack Smith is considered a long shot for this one.
We’ll know more about the line up in a little bit. There is talk Cody Ceci could be ready to return (Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo) but it sounds like Zack Smith misses another game tonight which means 2-4 less minutes of work for the Ottawa penalty kill.
1- The actual projected line up OR 2- The Belleville line up followed by a OOPS wrong team wise-crack?
Here’s how the Senators are expected to line up for this one.
Tkachuk-Pageau-Duclair
Boedker-Tierney-Ryan
Balcers-White-Veronneau
Gibbons-Lindberg-Paajarvi
Chabot-DeMelo
Wolanin-Ceci
Borowiecki-Jaros
Harpur
Here’s how the Senators are expected to line up for this one.
Paul-Brown-Batherson
Tambellini-Chlapik-Rodewald
Fyten-Balisly-Abramov
Labate-Beaudin-Luchuk
Brannstrom-Goloubef
Falk-Burgdoerfer
Englund-Elliott
Hang on, that’s the AHL team. Hard to tell the difference sometimes.
Anders Nilsson is in that starter’s end at the Game Day skate. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:38 PM.
The game is available on TSN5, RDS2 and all across the information super highway.
1. HEAD2HEAD Table OR 2. HEAD2HEAD Table
| HEAD2HEAD |
 |
 |
| Record |
33-32-12 (78 pts) |
27-43-6 (60 pts) |
| Goals For |
3.19 (9th) |
2.97 (16th) |
| Goals Against |
3.40 (29th) |
3.64 (31st) |
| Power Play |
27.4% (2nd) |
20.4% (14th) |
| Penalty Kill |
80.5% (17th) |
79.3% (22nd) |
| Shots For |
33.0 (6th) |
29.9 (24th) |
| Shots Against |
30.7 (10th) |
36.0 (31st) |
| Leading Scorers |
Barkov- 88 pts
Huberdeau- 84 pts
Hoffman- 69 pts |
Chabot- 52 pts
Tierney- 46 pts
Ryan- 40 pts |
| Starting Goalie |
Sam Montembeault
4-3-1
3.30 GAA, .882 sv% |
Anders Nilsson
13-18-1
3.04 GAA, .907 sv% |
| HEAD2HEAD |
|
|
| Record |
33-32-12 (78 pts) |
27-43-6 (60 pts) |
| Goals For |
3.19 (9th) |
2.97 (16th) |
| Goals Against |
3.40 (29th) |
3.64 (31st) |
| Power Play |
27.4% (2nd) |
20.4% (14th) |
| Penalty Kill |
80.5% (17th) |
79.3% (22nd) |
| Shots For |
33.0 (6th) |
29.9 (24th) |
| Shots Against |
30.7 (10th) |
36.0 (31st) |
| Leading Scorers |
Barkov- 88 pts
Huberdeau- 84 pts
Hoffman- 69 pts |
Chabot- 52 pts
Tierney- 46 pts
Ryan- 40 pts |
| Starting Goalie |
Sam Montembeault
4-3-1
3.30 GAA, .882 sv% |
Anders Nilsson
13-18-1
3.04 GAA, .907 sv% |
