I have good news and I have bad news.
Okay, I’ll start with the bad news. The Ottawa Senators play again tonight. The game is televised, meaning many of us will feel compelled to watch and to make things even worse, it’s against the Carolina Hurricanes. Again.
I’m sorry, I forgot what the good news was.
Eight games remaining in the regular season including one tonight in Carolina and another one on home ice tomorrow against the New York Islanders. That means by tomorrow at 10:00 PM, there will only be six games left. Hmm maybe that was the good news?
Anyway, a couple changes expected to the Ottawa line up ahead of this one.
Erik Karlsson won’t make the trip to Carolina meaning Ottawa will return to the usual six defenceman alignment.
With Karlsson out, the Senators have recalled forward Ben Sexton who will make his NHL debut. Sexton has racked up an impressive 21 points in 28 games with a struggling Belleville team. Certainly the most deserving of a call up. He’ll be the 42nd player to suit up for Ottawa this season which is apparently more than suited up during their expansion season.
Ben Sexton is local as all heck and is the son of former Sens General Manager Randy Sexton. He’ll wear Vaclav Varada’s #26.
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Craig Anderson gets the start in goal. The puck will drop just after 7:00 PM and shall enter the Ottawa net shortly thereafter.
Monday News and Notes
-Stop me if you’ve heard this one before- Don Cherry said something ignorant and uninformed over the weekend. This has become standard practice for Don Cherry in recent years and that’s his shtick. It’s usually pretty easy to tune him out except this time his target was the Ottawa Senators and their fans. Cherry did his best to comment on the #MelnykOut campaign although it was clear from the get go that he didn’t know a damn thing about it. And honestly, that was one of my biggest concerns about the campaign. The billboard and the corresponding website really doesn’t do a great job of explaining what the issues are making it pretty easy for the whole thing to be misinterpreted or worse, spun in a way that reflects poorly on the fan base. It seems to have been successful in getting the attention of the organization but the media coverage has been frustrating at times.
-Not a bad North American debut for top prospect Filip Gustavsson. Gustavsson made his first start with Belleville over the weekend and looked more than comfortable, turning aside 37 of the 39 shots he faced in a huge 8-2 win for the Senators. Transitioning to the pro game can be a challenge for European goaltenders so it was certainly encouraging so see Filly Franchise (or The Goose. I haven’t decided) hit the ground running. SensProspects, by far one of the most useful and informative accounts on Twitter, has a full breakdown of his performance. The first thing that jumps out at me is how ridiculously calm he is in the net.
-Speaking of prospects, Alex Formenton is off to a blistering start in the Ontario Hockey League playoffs. He’s scored five goals in the first two games, including an absurd shorthanded breakaway goal in Game 2 of the series between the London Knights and the Owen Sound Attack. Owen Sound has a 2-0 lead though with Game 3 of that series going tonight in London.
WATCH THIS: @GoLondonKnights GM 2 offence provided by @88Forms ⚔
Nobody catching the @Senators prospect who uses speed to deliver first 🎩🎩🎩 of #OHLPlayoffs #OSvsLDN. pic.twitter.com/hxa78JBA3q
— OntarioHockeyLeague (@OHLHockey) March 25, 2018
