It was basically the road trip from hell. And I’m not talking about my recent visit to Edmonton, Alberta.
On their recent four game swing through Minnesota, Dallas, New York and Philadelphia, it seemed like everything went wrong for the Ottawa Senators. And as they entered the third period against the Flyers on Tuesday night, they were staring down a season-high five game losing streak.
And then, in an instant, their fortunes started to turn. Brady Tkachuk had two and Matt Duchene scored one of the most impressive goals in franchise history and just like that, a win. Just like that, a losing streak snapped.
The Ottawa Senators now return home with something to build on as they host the New York Rangers at the Canadian Tire Centre.
While the Rangers have been labelled a rebuilding team, they’ve actually got off to a decent start this year. They come into tonight’s game sitting a surprising 3rd in the Metropolitan Division. They should be well-rested too with their last game coming on Monday against the Senators.
Game day skate at 10:30 AM so we’ll confirm the line combinations then. A best guess for now.
Dzingel-Duchene-Batherson
Tkachuk-White-Stone
Boedker-Tierney-Ryan
Pyatt-Smith-Paajarvi
Chabot-DeMelo
Lajoie-Ceci
Harpur-Jaros
Craig Anderson is expected to start for the Senators. Puck shall drop just after 7:30 PM.
The game is available on TSN5, RDS or in-person at the CTC. And if none of those three options work for you, then you are out of luck.
And for the record, I also won’t be answering any questions about Erik Karlsson’s return to Ottawa.
| H2H |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 13-10-2 (28 pts) | 10-12-3 (23 pts) |
| Goals For | 2.84 (22nd) | 3.56 (4th) |
| Goals Against | 3.04 (T-16th) | 4.28 (31st) |
| Power Play | 18.8% (19th) | 22.9% (10th) |
| Penalty Kill | 78.5% (18th) | 70.1% (31st) |
| Shots For | 29.6 (26th) | 29.9 (24th) |
| Shots Against | 33.3 (27th) | 38.3 (31st) |
| Leading Scorers | Kreider- 21 pts Zibanejad- 21 pts Hayes- 17 pts |
Duchene- 31 pts Chabot- 29 pts Stone- 28 pts |
| Starting Goalie | Henrik Lundqvist 9-7-2 2.60 GAA, .921 sv% |
Craig Anderson 9-9-3 3.87 GAA, .900 sv% |
