With just 13 games left to play in the regular season, it’s starting to look like this might not be the year for the Ottawa Senators.
This is going to come as a shock to some of you but after Saturday night’s loss in Boston, the Senators have officially been eliminated from playoff contention. Not even Andrew Hammond can save them now.
And while this is good news for my bank account, my liver and my children who won’t have to see the playoff version of their father, it’s still disappointing.
Watching Karlsson v. Stone in Round 1 would be fun and of course I’m looking forward to Toronto’s spectacular round one collapse but playoffs just aren’t the same without the Ottawa Senators.
In fact, this will be the first time the NHL playoffs have been completely Sens-less in consecutive years since 1995. As in 24 years ago. DVDs were just invented (remember DVDs?!), a new online auction site called Ebay was just getting its start and Jacques Martin still had that hilarious mustache.
So yea, it’s been a while.
The Senators continue to play out the string with a stop in Philadelphia to take on Claude Giroux and the Flyers.
While Ottawa has been relegated to playing spoiler down the stretch, the Flyers still have playoff aspirations. But just barely. They sit five points back of the Columbus Blue Jackets for the second Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference and with only 14 games left to play. You might even call this THEIR BIGGEST GAME OF THE YEAR.
A loss to the Ottawa Senators on home ice and you can be damn sure the boos (and batteries) will rain down in Philly.
Marc Crawford will have his team on the ice for the game day skate at 11:30 AM so we’ll confirm the lineup then. Based on yesterday’s practice, it looks like they’ll roll with a similar look to Saturday in Boston. A best guess for now.
Tkachuk-Pageau-Duclair
Smith-White-Ryan
Gibbons-Lindberg-Boedker
Balcers-Tierney-Paajarvi
Chabot-DeMelo
Wolanin-Ceci
Borowiecki-Harpur
Craig Anderson is expected to get the start in goal for Ottawa. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:08 PM.
The game is available on TSN5, RDS and streams will be made available for the low, low price of $19.99.
Gritty is overrated. Here is a table.
| HEAD2HEAD |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 23-40-6 (52 pts) | 33-27-8 (74 pts) |
| Goals For | 2.94 (T-17th) | 3.04 (12th) |
| Goals Against | 3.72 (30th) | 3.31 (28th) |
| Power Play | 20.2% (13th) | 17.4% (21st) |
| Penalty Kill | 78.9% (23rd) | 77.7% (26th) |
| Shots For | 30.0 (23rd) | 31.4 (19th) |
| Shots Against | 36.0 (31st) | 32.0 (21st) |
| Leading Scorers | Chabot- 48 pts Tierney- 42 pts Ryan- 37 pts |
Giroux- 73 pts Couturier- 64 pts Voracek- 61 pts |
| Starting Goalie | Craig Anderson 14-23-4 3.53 GAA, .903 sv% |
Brian Elliott 10-8-1 2.62 GAA, .916 sv% |
