With 20 games remaining in their season, the Ottawa Senators finally make their first stop in Vegas to take on the expansion Golden Knights.
To say that the Vegas Golden Knights are a surprise this season would be a massive understatement.
Being an expansion team is supposed to come with at least two to three years of embarrassment. I’m talking like a 1-41-0 record on the road level of embarrassment. You know, like giving up 4.7 goals against per night. It should come with a goal differential of almost -200. It’s not supposed to be this easy.
Vegas sits atop the Pacific Division with an incredible 41-17-5 record. They are just five points out of first place in the whole damn league.
All year, they’ve proven the experts wrong. Also, they have inspired me to never make another prediction again. Ever.
Safe to say, the Senators are in tough tonight.
Tanking is bad and it’s wrong to expect that a team of professionals would just pack it in down the stretch but for Sens fans, it’s impossible not to glance in the rear-view mirror.
The Senators come into tonight ranked 29th overall, a comfortable four points behind the 28th place Vancouver Canucks. But suddenly, the Buffalo Sabres are just a point back of Ottawa. And the last place Arizona Coyotes- just four points behind. The Sens play both Arizona and Buffalo in the next week too.
So- enter Alex Burrows.
Marian Gaborik is expected to miss tonight’s game with an injury. Alex Burrows has served his suspension and is expected to draw back in on the fourth line. Game day skate set for 2:00 PM so we’ll confirm the line up then. A best guess for now based on the combinations used at yesterday’s practice.
Hoffman-Duchene-Pyatt
Ryan-Pageau-Stone
Paajarvi-Smith-Dzingel
McCormick-O’Brien-Burrows
Claesson-Karlsson
Chabot-Ceci
Borowiecki-Harpur
Craig Anderson is expected to get the start in goal. Puck drop is at 10:00 PM which means the Senators are guaranteed not to lose today.
-For those that had the fortune of missing it, yesterday Ottawa Senators Owner/Team President/CEO (and probably soon to be Head Coach) Eugene Melnyk strung together a series of words and sentences. Those words and sentences were then delivered to what’s left of their season ticket-holders via electronic mail. The Letter, which was almost certainly prepared by the recently hired PR firm, laid out umm well actually I’m not sure what it laid out. Pretty sure the hot dog/tarp press conference had more substance. He didn’t threaten to move the team though so at least there’s that. I read all 593 words of the letter and by the end of it, I was thinking of the same two words I was when I started the damn thing- Melnyk Out.
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| Record | 21-31-10 (52 pts) | 41-17-5 (87 pts) |
| Goals For | 2.68 (25th) | 3.43 (2nd) |
| Goals Against | 3.44 (30th) | 2.71 (9th) |
| Power Play | 16.6% (27th) | 21.0% (10th) |
| Penalty Kill | 75.6% (28th) | 80.0% (17th) |
| Shots For/Shots Against | 30.5 (24th) 33.2 (26th) |
33.0 (8th) 30.4 (6th) |
| Leading Scorers | Stone- 57 pts Karlsson- 44 pts Hoffman- 44 pts |
Marchessault- 63 pts Smith- 58 pts Karlsson- 57 pts |
| Team Save % | .897% (29th) | .911% (13th) |
| Draft Lottery Chances | 10.5% | 0% |
