For five years now, the Ottawa Senators have been relegated to the role of spoiler at this time of year.
Frankly, it sucks. It has been way too long since we’ve felt the excruciating sense of helplessness that comes with watching your favourite hockey team play in an important game. We’re getting back there and soon. It’s gonna be awful/amazing.
But in the meantime, we must turn our attention to spoiling the hopes and dreams of others. Enter, the Vancouver Canucks.
It’s a longshot but the Canucks are red-hot and as of this moment, fancy themselves playoff contenders. Four points back of the Los Angeles Kings and with a game in hand and a head-to-head game on the horizon. Vancouver has reeled off six straight wins and now get to face the lowly Senators, on a back to back, in what really is their most important game of the season to date.
Perfect. Just perfect.
DJ Smith says they’ll go with the same lineup tonight. The good news is this particular collection of hockey players would be hard-pressed to play worse than they did last night in Seattle.
Tkachuk-Norris-Brown
Formenton-Stützle-Batherson
Gaudette-Tierney-Senyshyn
Kelly-Gambrell-Watson
Del Zotto-Hamonic
Brannstrom-Zub
Holden-Zaitsev
Filip Gustavsson gets the start in goal for the visitors.
The Senators continue their assault on our sleep patterns with another 10:00 PM start. The game is available on your television (TSN5, Sportsnet Pacific and RDA), on your ham radio (TSN1200), on your mobile device (Sens’d.org).
Here’s a closer look at how the can’t possibly lose this game Canucks match-up with the not a care in the world Senators.
| HEAD2HEAD |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 28-41-7 (63 pts) | 38-28-10 (86 pts) |
| Goals For | 2.70 (26th) | 2.99 (19th) |
| Goals Against | 3.24 (23rd) | 2.76 (8th) |
| Power Play | 19.6% (21st) | 23.6% (8th) |
| Penalty Kill | 80.5% (13th) | 73.6% (31st) |
| Shots For | 30.0 (20th) | 32.0 (13th) |
| Shots Against | 33.1 (25th) | 31.8 (15th) |
| Leading Scorers | Tkachuk- 60 pts Stutzle- 52 pts Norris- 51 pts Batherson- 40 pts Brown- 39 pts |
Miller- 91 pts Pettersson- 63 pts Hughes- 59 pts Horvat- 52 pts Garland- 44 pts |
| Starting Goalie | Filip Gustavsson 3-11-1 3.78 GAA, .886 sv% |
Jaroslav Halak 4-7-2 3.01 GAA, .899 sv% |
