Hi
Check…Check…Is this thing on?
It has been years since we last saw our beloved Senators. They travelled deep into the heart of Stockholm, Sweden and vanished without a trace. Sure they would pop up from time to time – like that dramatic overtime win over the Detroit Red Wings and hard-working shootout victory over the Minnesota Wild but it’s been quiet since then. There have been reports of them on various ice surfaces in the area but those are mostly unconfirmed.
But according to the NHL’s schedule, they’ll play an actual hockey game later tonight. I’ll believe it when I see it.
The Ottawa Senators host the New York Islanders on Friday night at the Canadian Tire Centre.
In case you moved on to other hobbies during that endless time without the Senators, a quick recap may be in order. The start of the season has been a wild and wacky (whacky?) ride around these parts. There have been twists and there have been turns. There have been dizzying highs and there been weirdly dramatic lows. Add it all up and you get a team that is uh 8-7-0 and riding a three-game winning streak and doing just fine actually.
There is some work to do though. The Senators head into tonight’s action sitting in uh last in the Atlantic Division. By points anyway. They’ve played anywhere from 2 to 5 fewer games than the other teams in their division though so the challenge now is taking advantage of those games in hand.
Ottawa will play six of their next eight games within the friendly confines of the CTC and it is critically important that they make the most of this upcoming stretch.
Here’s how the Senators lined up at practice yesterday. They’ll skate again at 10:30 AM this morning so we’ll confirm the lineup then.
Tkachuk-Norris-Tarasenko
Joseph-Stützle-Giroux
Kubalik-Jarventie-Batherson
Highmore-Chartier-Kelly
Sanderson-Zub
Chychrun-Bernard-Docker
Brannstrom-Hamonic
Anton Forsberg gets the start.
Puck drop is scheduled for 7:38 PM at the Canadian Tire Centre which is conveniently located in scenic Kanata, Ontario. The game is available on TSN5, RDS and on the radio at TSN1200. Streams will be available closer to game time and discounted tickets are available here.
And here’s a table. The name for it is escaping me right now but what it does is show you how these two teams match-up in a head-2-head setting.
| HEAD2HEAD |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 7-6-5 (19 pts) | 8-7-0 (16 pts) |
| Goals For | 2.56 (29th) | 3.73 (4th) |
| Goals Against | 3.17 (15th) | 3.27 (19th) |
| Power Play | 22.0% (10th) | 20.0% (16th) |
| Penalty Kill | 70.0% (31st) | 78.4% (18th) |
| Shots For | 30.7 (20th) | 32.9 (6th) |
| Shots Against | 35.1 (31st) | 30.1 (14th) |
| Leading Scorers | Barzal-15 pts Dobson-15 pts Horvat-14 pts Nelson-14 pts Engvall-13 pts |
Stutzle-20 pts Giroux-16 pts Tkachuk-14 pts Joseph-13 pts Tarasenko-13 pts |
| Starting Goalie | TBD | TBD |
