An at times miserable December is finally about to come to an end for the Ottawa Senators.
They’ve posted a 6-7-1 record this month and fallen from second in the Atlantic Division all the way to the second Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference. And while there have been flashes of good for the Sens, it’s generally been a month to forget. The good news is some of the teams ahead of them have struggled a little bit lately too so the gap is certainly manageable.
The back to back against the Boston Bruins probably didn’t go exactly as the Senators were hoping either. They ended up splitting the two games but their performance both in Ottawa and in Boston left much to be desired. By winning one of two they don’t really lose any ground in the standings but their overall effort was nowhere near good enough in either game.
The good news is they can get right back on the horse with another important game on home ice against the New Jersey Devils.
Like the Senators, the Devils find themselves in the thick of the Eastern Conference playoff race. They currently sit just one point back of Ottawa for the final playoff spot in the East. Keith Kinkaid started in a 3-2 win over Carolina last night which means Cory Schneider gets the nod tonight.
With no morning skate today, Ottawa’s lineup is going to remain a bit of a mystery until puck drop. And it will be even more of a guessing game than usual with the news this morning that both Frederick Claesson and Mike Kostka have been called up from Binghamton. Cameron talked about lineup changes with the media and seemed to suggest that Marc Methot and Mark Borowiecki were among the guys who might not play tonight.
They’ll be at least one change up front too with Curtis Lazar healthy and ready to return. Based on what we know about injuries and how the line up has looked recently, here are the things I’m sure about with tonight’s line up.
_____-Turris-Stone
_____-____-Ryan
Dziurzynski-______-______
_____-______-Neil
______-Karlsson
______-________
______-________
Dave Cameron will help fill in some of those blanks later tonight. Andrew Hammond gets the start in goal for Ottawa. Puck drop is scheduled for just after 7:30 PM.
