It’s another Sens Game Day!
And this time, they face their toughest opponent to date.
Themselves.
That’s right folks. The Ottawa Senators are going head to head with the Ottawa Senators today and nobody knows exactly how it’s all going to play out.
By all accounts and confirmed by contacts I have spoken with over the last 48 hours, today is the day Mark Stone will give the team an answer on their latest offer.
A defining moment in the rebuild of this roster.
While Pierre Dorion has taken plenty of flack for his approach to these three UFAs, it sounds like they are playing the situation as best they can. Their preference was to sign both Mark Stone and Matt Duchene. They were doing so with a limited amount of resources and obviously didn’t have a lot of traction with the offers that were presented.
And now, with the clock running out, they have turned their full attention to Mark Stone. And rightfully so.
He’s at the peak of his career. He is an elite forward. He’s a natural leader. He’s a player that everyone in the locker room looks up to. And he should one day be the Captain of this team. The veteran presence that can help steer the ship through this period of uncertainty.
Pierre Dorion and the Senators organization have been trying to convince him of that over the last week or so.
After trying longer term deals, they have apparently shifted to shorter term offers with a higher yearly average. According to some speculation, high enough to make Mark Stone the highest paid winger in the game.
But they need an answer. And today, they’ll get one from Stone’s Camp.
Meanwhile, there is drama around the situation with Matt Duchene too.
He is not expected to play tonight but as was apparent in the interview with the player and Coach yesterday, nobody has said that definitively. They had clearly both heard talk of it and were playing dumb a little bit but were still waiting to hear for sure as of yesterday.
Unless of course Guy Boucher actually likes that trio of Balcers-Duchene-Goloubef which I guess is entirely possible.
Safe to say this will be the most highly anticipated media availability of the year.
The Senators won’t skate this morning but Guy Boucher and select players are going to meet with the media at 11:45 AM. Don’t be surprised if you hear a whole lot of, “we’ll decide at game time” comments from the Head Coach.
The Senators play the Devils tonight, by the way. It’s completely understandable if you thought the hockey-playing part of this season was over but apparently it’s not. The Sens have 23 games left to go and Operation Don’t Finish Last has hit a bit of a snag lately. With all the losing and what not. That and the whole being in last place thing.
New Jersey is one of the teams within striking distance though so a regulation win would be nice.
A line up guess? I won’t even bother.
Starting goalie? The Ghost.
Puck drops just after 7:00 PM. The game is on TSN5, RDS2 and Matt Duchene, if you’re reading this, you can probably find a stream on reddit somewhere.
Table time.
| HEAD2HEAD |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 22-32-5 (49 pts) | 23-29-8 (54 pts) |
| Goals For | 3.15 (11th) | 2.92 (18th) |
| Goals Against | 3.71 (31st) | 3.42 (29th) |
| Power Play | 22.0% (8th) | 19.3% (17th) |
| Penalty Kill | 76.7% (28th) | 83.8% (3rd) |
| Shots For | 30.3 (22nd) | 31.5 (18th) |
| Shots Against | 36.4 (31st) | 31.6 (19th) |
| Leading Scorers | Stone- 62 pts Duchene- 58 pts Chabot- 46 pts |
Palmieri- 47 pts Hischier- 42 pts Hall- 37 pts |
| Starting Goalie | Anders Nilsson 10-14-1 2.91 GAA, .909 sv% |
Keith Kinkaid 15-18-6 3.36 GAA, .891 sv% |
