The Ottawa Senators begin the unofficial second half of the season tonight as they visit the Carolina Hurricanes, a team on the Eastern Conference playoff bubble.
The Senators have lost five straight and without a better effort, that could easily hit nine by the end of the week. Ottawa is in Carolina tonight, home to Anaheim on Thursday and then play back to back games on the road in Philadelphia and Montreal on the weekend.
And then if they lose those four, they’ll probably lose the next 33. Ending the season on a record-setting 40 game losing streak.
Okay, maybe I’m being a little bit dramatic. But the way things were going for the Senators prior to the All Star break, it was sort of difficult to imagine them ever winning again. We’ll see if another hard-earned break helped them refocus.
The Carolina Hurricanes should be desperate as they come into tonight’s game sitting just four points out of the second Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference. On paper, Carolina looked like they were ready to finally push for a playoff spot but they have been once again sunk by dreadful goaltending. The addition of Scott Darling has back-fired in a big way and veteran Cam Ward has only been marginally better.
It’s too bad because this Carolina team is stacked with young talent up front and on the blueline.
On Ottawa’s side of things, it really has become a case of playing out the string. For half a season.
Colin White, Chris DiDomenico and Erik Burgdoerfer were all sent down to Belleville over the break but were recalled again yesterday. All three could play tonight.
Meanwhile waiver wire pick-up Magnus Pääjärvi makes his Ottawa debut. It looks like he’s going to be given a chance to show what he can do too. At yesterday’s practice, he skated on a line with Derick Brassard and Ryan Dzingel and took reps on the power play. Pääjärvi is a UFA at the end of the season so you know he’ll want to have a strong finish to his season.
Newly acquired Magnus Paajarvi talks about the excitement of getting started with Ottawa and looks forward to his #Sens debut tomorrow versus the Hurricanes. pic.twitter.com/K4vSfopxVk
— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) January 30, 2018
A best guess at the line up for now
Pääjärvi-Brässärd-Dzingel
Hoffman-Duchene-Ryan
Smith-Pageau-Pyatt
Burrows-White-DiDomenico
Chabot-Karlsson
Phaneuf-Ceci
Borowiecki-Claesson/Burgdoerfer
Craig Anderson gets the start in goal for Ottawa. Puck drop is scheduled for just after 7:00 PM.
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 15-23-9 (39 pts) | 22-19-8 (52 pts) |
| Goals For | 2.62 (25th) | 2.73 (23rd) |
| Goals Against | 3.43 (30th) | 3.08 (23rd) |
| Power Play | 15.2% (29th) | 19.1% (19th) |
| Penalty Kill | 74.8% (29th) | 77.3% (27th) |
| Shots For/Shots Against | 30.1 (25th) 33.0 (26th) |
34.2 (5th) 29.2 (1st) |
| Scoring Leaders | Stone- 44 pts Karlsson- 31 pts Hoffman- 30 pts |
Teravainen- 39 pts Aho- 37 pts Skinner- 31 pts |
| Team Save % | .896% (29th) | .894% (31st) |
| Playoff Chances | 0.06% | 26.4% |
