Last night was ugly. Really, really ugly.
Like, worst period in the history of the franchise ugly. Okay, maybe not quite but certainly as close to the expansion Ottawa Senators as I’m willing to go this season. The Senators were a complete disaster in the first period and while they played better in the second and third, the end result was still a humiliating loss in what really was an important game.
No time to dwell on it though.
After two weeks on the road, the Senators finally return home to the Canadian Tire Centre and find a John Tavares and well-rested New York Islanders waiting for them.
Back to backs are tough at the best of times but this is on another level. The Islanders last played on Sunday night. Four days of rest. I’m not trying to make excuses here but that’s a ridiculous bit of scheduling. Should be interesting to see how the Senators look considering the circumstances. This is a talented Islanders team that currently sits third in the Metropolitan Division. While they’ve been pretty good at home (15-7-3), they’ve been fairly average as the visitors going just 9-8-3.
On the Senators side of things, it’s all about putting last night’s debacle behind. Players and Coaches were clearly frustrated following last night’s embarrassing start and now it’s up to them to use that frustration and learn from it. Another slow start and you get the sense things could really start to cave in on this Ottawa team (and this website).
Both Kyle Turris and Marc Methot have been ruled out again. Cameron suggested that he may make one change to the line up which could mean Matt Puempel gets a chance. If Puempel doesn’t dress, same line up expected.
Michalek-Zibanejad-Ryan
Hoffman-Smith-Stone
Chiasson-Pageau-Lazar
Prince-McCormick-Neil
Borowiecki-Karlsson
Wiercioch-Ceci
Cowen-Wideman
Andrew Hammond gets the start for Ottawa. Puck drop is just after 7: 30 PM.
I’m putting these two videos here because I think we all need them.
