Beating the lowly Montreal Canadiens is one thing but the Ottawa Senators face an entirely different challenge tonight at the Canadian Tire Centre as Alex Ovehckin, Evgeny Kuznetsov and the high-flying Washington Capital roll into town.
This Washington team has been the class of the East all year and should probably be considered a Stanley Cup favourite with the playoffs now just about a month away. Obviously there are some powerhouse teams in the Western Conference but this Capitals teams looks as strong as them if not stronger.
Heading into tonight the Caps have an incredible 12 point lead on the second place Dallas Stars. They are second in goals for, third in goals against, second ranked power play and the fourth best penalty kill. And if all that doesn’t make them scary enough, they come into Ottawa with a little bit of anger too, after getting blown out by the Pittsburgh Penguins in their last game.
If the Senators aren’t ready to play tonight, they could meet a similar fate.
Patrick Wiercioch will miss another game on the Ottawa blue line. He’s been nursing an upper-body injury for the past couple weeks and when speaking to the media yesterday, Dave Cameron referred to the injury as “week to week”. Wiercioch is an RFA at the end of the season and based on some of the initial talk, it doesn’t seem like the Sens plan to bring him back. There’s a good chance Patrick Wiercioch has played his last game in an Ottawa uniform.
Will wait for the morning skate to confirm but here’s how the Senators are expected to line up.
Smith-Pageau-Stone
Hoffman-Zibanejad-Chiasson
Puempel-Gomez-Ryan
Paul-Lazar-Neil
Methot-Karlsson
Phaneuf-Ceci
Kostka-Wideman
Craig Anderson gets the start in the Ottawa goal. Puck drop is scheduled for just after 7:30 PM.
-Eugene Melnyk met with the media this morning and as usual, spoke/ran his mouth on a number of subjects usually reserved for the General Manager of the hockey team. Clearly the Owner is not happy with the way this season has gone and has promised there will be changes heading into next year and that nobody in the organization is safe. Well except for one guy, I suppose. Anyway, the full audio is here.
