Let’s do it again, shall we?
Less than 24 hours after another mostly listless effort against the Minnesota Wild, the free-falling Ottawa Senators are right back at it again tonight as they visit the St. Louis Blues. The same St. Louis Blues that handed the Senators a 4-1 loss on home ice at the end of last week.
This should be good.
If there was anyone left clinging to the hope of a miracle run to the playoffs, last night’s loss in Minnesota should probably be the last straw. Although realistically, it seems like most people gave up on that dream in early-December. Heading into tonight’s game, the Senators sit a full 14 points back of the second Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference.
At the same time, the objects in the rear-view mirror are closer than they appear. Both the Buffalo Sabres and Arizona Coyotes won last night and now trail Ottawa by just six points. Obviously the Senators still have a bunch of games in hand but that doesn’t really make a different when you lose all of them.
With 37 games left in their season, the Senators look like a group that realizes they don’t really have much left to play for. It could be a long three months around these parts.
If you’re looking for a positive to take away from last night’s game, it was the play of Colin White. His hockey IQ is as advertised as he always seems to be in the right spot on the ice and last night especially, it led to a couple quality scoring chances. He finished the game with a season-high 15:35 last night. Would be nice to see him get an opportunity on one of the top two lines at some point tonight.
Filip Chlapik was injured in the game against the Wild and will not play tonight. Max McCormick has been recalled to take his place but there seems to be some doubt whether he’ll be able to make it to St. Louis in time for the game. If he doesn’t get there then Erik Burgdoerfer will play.
Dzingel-Brassard-DiDomenico
Hoffman-Duchene-Ryan
Smith-White-Pyatt
Burrows-McCormick-Dumont
Chabot-Karlsson
Phaneuf-Ceci
Borowiecki-Claesson
Boucher indicated that he plans to split the starts in this back to back so expect Craig Anderson to get the nod for Ottawa. Puck drop is set for just after 8:00 PM.
-There are only a couple days left to vote SensChirp for Blog of the Year in the upcoming Faces Magazine Awards! You can vote once a day per IP address and remember, you don’t have to make a choice in every category, unless of course you have a strong feeling on Ottawa’s Top Angler. Voting closes at 9:00 PM on Thursday.
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|---|---|---|
| Record | 15-21-9 (39 pts) | 28-18-3 (59 pts) |
| Goals For | 2.69 (T-24th) | 2.84 (18th) |
| Goals Against | 3.44 (29th) | 2.63 (T-6th) |
| Power Play | 15.4% (27th) | 15.5% (26th) |
| Penalty Kill | 74.8% (29th) | 81.6% (14th) |
| Shots For/Shots Against | 30.3 (24th) 32.6 (23rd) |
33.3 (8th) 30.5 (7th) |
| Scoring Leaders | Stone- 44 pts Karlsson- 31 pts Hoffman- 30 pts |
Schenn- 47 pts Tarasenko- 45 pts Schwartz- 35 pts |
| Team Save % | .894% (T-30th) | .914% (T-10th) |
