The Ottawa Senators went into the bye week feeling pretty good about their game.
They got off to a 3-1-1 start in January and for a couple weeks anyway, the conversation had shifted from draft positioning to what it might take to push for a playoff down the stretch.
And then, they came crashing back to reality.
They have now lost four straight out of the break, outscored 14-5 along the way. In the process, they have solidified their spot at the bottom of the standings, and actually closed a bit of ground on the seemingly untouchable Buffalo Sabres and Arizona Coyotes.
This team is toast and they know it. The problem is that while the season is long over, the schedule indicates there are 36 games to go.
One of those games takes place at the Canadian Tire Centre tonight. And it’s against the league’s hottest team- the Boston Bruins.
The Bruins roll into Ottawa having won four straight. They have an 8-0-2 record in their last ten games and they sit comfortably in second place in the Atlantic Division, within striking distance of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Their line up usually features one of the league’s top lines in Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak but they’ll be without that rat of a left winger tonight as he serves the first game of a five game suspension.
The Senators did not practice yesterday which makes sense because I’m not sure they have practiced since the middle of last season. Rest is a weapon, you know. Mark Stone and Jean Gabriel Pageau are both close to a return but it’s not clear if they’ll play tonight.
Boucher will have his team on the ice for their morning skate at 10:30 AM this morning so we’ll find out more about the line up then.
Dzingel-Brassard-Ryan
Hoffman-Duchene-DiDomenico
Smith-White-Pyatt
Burrows-Dumont
Chabot-Karlsson
Phaneuf-Ceci
Borowiecki-Claesson
Burgdoerfer
Mike Condon is expected to start in goal. Puck drop is scheduled for just after 7:30 PM.
-A reminder that later this morning, the National Capital Commission Board of Directors will receive an update on the ongoing LeBreton Flats negotiations. As we learned earlier this week, it is expected that the NCC will announce that they have reached a land transfer agreement with the RendezVous LeBreton group representing an important milestone in the process to move this team downtown. The discussion on LeBreton will take place at 11:20 AM. You can follow along with the proceedings here.
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|---|---|---|
| Record | 28-10-8 (64 pts) | 15-22-9 (39 pts) |
| Goals For | 3.26 (5th) | 2.63 (26th) |
| Goals Against | 2.43 (1st) | 3.43 (30th) |
| Power Play | 21.2% (7th) | 15.0% (29th) |
| Penalty Kill | 83.9% (3rd) | 75.4% (28th) |
| Shots For/Shots Against | 31.6 (16th) 29.5 (3rd) |
30.2 (24th) 32.8 (25th) |
| Leading Scorers | Marchand- 50 pts Pastrnak- 45 pts Bergeron- 40 pts |
Stone- 44 pts Karlsson- 31 pts Hoffman- 30 pts |
| Team Save % | .918% (5th) | .895% (T-29th) |
