After a perfect road trip out West, the Ottawa Senators return to the friendly confines of the Canadian Tire Centre looking to continue their winning ways.
The Senators have reeled off six straight victories and continue to find ways to win despite missing some key players from their line up.
It’s a surge that has them suddenly in contention for top spot in the Atlantic Division and it has given them a bit of a cushion over the teams in pursuit. Although certainly not enough breathing room that they can afford to let up. They’re four points up on 3rd place Boston and nine clear of the New York Islanders and tonight’s opposition- the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Written off by some in the week leading up to the NHL Trade Deadline, the Tampa Bay Lightning suddenly find themselves in the thick of the Eastern Conference playoff race. Despite moving a couple important pieces at the deadline and even though their line up has been decimated by injuries, the Lightning continued to hang around. Heading into tonight they sit just one point back of the Toronto Maple Leafs for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
Tampa Bay is coming off a 3-2 win last night in New York. Tonight will be their third game in four nights.
The fact that the Lightning and the Islanders remain so close in the East shows just how important those three wins were out West.
On Ottawa’s side of the equation, they continue to face adversity in the form of a number of key injuries. Pierre Dorion spoke yesterday and suggested that Mark Stone is “week to week” and that is apparently good news. The organization feared it could be a much longer term injury than that. Like, potentially season ending. Now they are saying he could travel with the team on Sunday.
In a bit of good news, both Kyle Turris and Bobby Ryan will return tonight. We knew both were getting close but to get them Turris and Ryan back at the same time is a huge bonus for a team that has had it’s new-found depth tested over the last couple weeks. Mark Borowiecki misses another game on the blueline.
Smith-Turris-Dzingel
Burrows-Brassard-Ryan
Hoffman-Pageau-Pyatt
Stalberg-Kelly-Wingels
Methot-Karlsson
Phaneuf-Ceci
Claesson-Wideman
In a bit of a surprise, no sign of Craig Anderson at the morning skate. He suffered a minor injury during the Colorado game and his status will be updated later this week. Mike Condon starts for Ottawa with Chris Driedger as his back up. Puck drop is scheduled for just after 7:30 PM.
