As the old saying goes, what happens in Colorado, Las Vegas and Arizona stays in Colorado, Las Vegas and Arizona.
After an ugly three game swing through the ol’ Western Conference buzz-saw, the Ottawa Senators stumble home to the friendly confines of the Canadian Tire Centre. They host the Buffalo Sabres tonight, visit beautiful Buffalo, New York on Saturday and then come back home to play the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday.
It’s the start of a busy stretch for the Senators that will see them play 7 games in the next 10 days.
Sabres, Sabres, Lightning, Devils, Golden Knights, Lightning and Panthers. Two backs to backs and a trip to Florida in there too. There will be no easy games for the Sens this year but these next couple weeks appear to be especially daunting.
They need to get off on the right foot against Buffalo tonight.
Unfortunately, these aren’t your Grandma’s Sabres. They are Jack Eichel’s actually. The player/coach/owner is off to a good start, putting up 12 points in the first 12 games. He has a little help this year too. Jeff Skinner has 6 goals and 12 points and Jason Pominville, who apparently still plays for the Sabres, has racked up 10 points of his own.
While the Sabres have lost two straight, both those games were OT losses. Buffalo comes into this one having registered at least a point in their last five games. That makes them the most successful Buffalo sports franchise of all-time, I do believe.
Less than 24 hours after a nightmare start in Arizona, back-up goalie Mike Condon found himself on the waiver wire yesterday.
It’s a fairly drastic move by the organization but with so many games coming up over the next few weeks, they need two goalies. And it’s pretty clear that right now, Condon’s confidence just isn’t where it needs to be to start in the National Hockey League. Wouldn’t be fair to him and wouldn’t be fair to the team to throw him back in there this weekend.
With two years left on his deal at $2.4 mil and $3.0 mil, Condon is expected to clear waivers today at noon. From there, it sounds like the plan is to send him to Belleville to get some reps in at the AHL level.
Meanwhile, the Senators will need another goalie and apparently 35 year old Mike McKenna is that guy. The Senators also announced that Christian Wolanin and Jack Rodewald have been returned to Belleville while Erik Burgdoerfer and Nick Paul are on the way up.
The Senators are on the ice for their Game Day skate at 10:30 AM this morning so we should have a better idea how they’ll line up then.
A best guess for now.
Dzingel-Duchene-Stone
Formenton-Tierney-Ryan
Paul-White-Boedker
Paajarvi-McCormick-Pyatt
Chabot-DeMelo
Lajoie-Ceci
Wideman-Jaros
Craig Anderson is expected to get the start in goal. Puck drop is scheduled for just after 7:30 PM and I have a feeling there might be a ticket or two still available.
If the trip to the CTC seems too daunting or if attending the game sends the wrong message, you’ll be happy to know you can watch it on TSN5, RDS2, or all across the information super highway.
If you’ve read all those words and still find yourself thinking, I need more. I need to know MORE about this Sabres/Sens match-up. Well I’ve got just the thing for you…
| HEAD2HEAD |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 6-4-2 (14 pts) | 4-5-2 (10 pts) |
| Goals For | 2.58 (26th) | 3.27 (T-12th) |
| Goals Against | 2.92 (15th) | 4.00 (T-30th) |
| Power Play | 20.0% 17th) | 22.9% (13th) |
| Penalty Kill | 78.9 (15th) | 68.4% (29th) |
| Shots For | 30.3 (24th) | 27.8 (28th) |
| Shots Against` | 32.2 (19th) | 37.6 (30th) |
| Leading Scorers | Eichel- 12 pts Skinner- 12 pts Pominville- 10 pts |
Chabot- 13 pts Tierney- 11 pts Duchene- 11 pts |
| Starting Goalie | Carter Hutton 2.94 GAA .910 sv% |
Craig Anderson 3.48 GAA .909 sv% |
