They’re baaaaaaaack.
The dried out Christmas tree has been chucked to the curb, the 3/4 full carton of eggnog was poured down the drain and the brand new pair of socks you got this year are already being worn for a second time.
The holidays are over and it’s time to get back to work.
After a six day hiatus where they lost a starting goalie and gained a puppy, the Ottawa Senators finally return to the playing of hockey. The last time we saw this lovable gang of misfits, they were dropping back to back games at the hands of the Devils and Capitals.
It was a weekend ruining 120 minutes that almost certainly left a bad taste, similar to one of those horrible holiday fruitcakes, in the mouths of the players.
A similar back to back awaits this weekend. First a stop in Brooklyn to take on the Islanders and then back home to face those same Washington Capitals.
Piece of cake! Hopefully it’s not fruitcake this time. Seriously though, what the hell is with fruitcake?
Not much was expected of the Islanders heading into this season but they have been a bit of a surprise in the first half. While they still sit outside the Eastern Conference playoff picture, they are just three points off the pace. Losing John Tavares hurt but the fact that he spent a good portion of last season walking around the locker room in his Leafs jammies had become a huge distraction.
They have been surprisingly competitive without him.
Guy Boucher’s team will be looking for a better effort than they put in before the holiday break. The game against the Devils was one of the worst in recent memory and they were just completely outclassed by the Capitals on home ice. Hard to be much worse, actually.
Game day skate goes at 11:30 AM this morning so we’ll find out the line up then.
Tkachuk-White-Stone
Smith-Duchene-Dzingel
Boedker-Tierney-Ryan
Paul-Paajarvi
Chabot-DeMelo
Harpur-Ceci
Borowiecki-Jaros
Lajoie
That includes a decision on a starting goalie. Mike McKenna and Marcus Hogberg are expected to split this weekend’s games.
Puck drop is scheduled for just after 7:00 PM. The game is available on TSN5, RDS2 and is likely also available to the streamers among us.
And now, a table. No…THE table.
| HEAD2HEAD |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 15-18-4 (34 pts) | 18-13-4 (40 pts) |
| Goals For | 3.19 (11th) | 2.83 (22nd) |
| Goals Against | 3.89 (31st) | 2.71 (5th) |
| Power Play | 21.6% (13th) | 15.7% (23rd) |
| Penalty Kill | 74.3% (30th) | 78.1% (20th) |
| Shots For | 29.1 (25th) | 27.9 (30th) |
| Shots Against | 37.7 (31st) | 31.2 (15th) |
| Leading Scorers | Stone- 40 pts Chabot- 37 pts Duchene- 36 pts |
Barzal- 29 pts Bailey- 28 pts Lee- 26 pts |
| Starting Goalie | Mike McKenna 1-3-1 3.79 GAA, .902 sv% |
Robin Lehner 6-6-3 2.44 GAA, .919 sv% |
