For just the second time in the last 26 days, the Ottawa Senators are going to play an actual hockey game.
Oh, sorry it has been cancelled. Oh wait no, it’s happening but actually it’s cancelled. Quick update on that- it’s happening. Confirmed. The Senators visit the Flames in Calgary on Thursday night.
Before we get into what we can expect from tonight’s game and before we review the rules of ice hockey, a word on this recent stretch.
It’s a bit of a joke, from a hockey perspective.
Necessary perhaps but any suggestion that this is anything even close to an actual hockey season is complete nonsense, at this point. The league is doing their best to push things through under difficult circumstances but in terms of fairness and legitimacy of anything happening this season, it’s a lost cause. And not surprisingly, no team has been screwed more than the Senators.
First, because they were basically left to struggle for a month while they dealt with a team-wide outbreak at a time when the league had no real plan to respond. Let’s see how they handle it, seemed to be the general position of the league.
And now, it is again the Senators that find themselves most directly impacted by the schedule uncertainty and the mostly random approach to postponing games. In this case, it’s more about scheduling and about money but still, it’s the team and the players that are paying the price.
Anyway, there’s a game tonight, so take what we can get, I suppose.
No game day skate so we’ll have to wait until later today to find out who plays and who doesn’t. In the meantime, here’s a video of Drake Batherson mic’d up that I can guarantee you’ll want to watch at least twice.
Yep, he’s ready.
Here’s how DJ Smith had them lined up at yesterday’s practice, which may provide some hints on how they may line up in an actual game situation, assuming that’s actually what happens tonight.
Tkachuk-Norris-Batherson
Formenton-Paul-Brown
Sanford-Gambrell-Watson
Ennis-Tierney-Sabourin/Bishop
Chabot-Bernard-Docker
Holden-Zub
Brannstrom-Brown
Heatherington Mete
Matt Murray gets the start in goal.
Puck drop is scheduled for just after 9:00 PM because when you waited a month for a game, what’s an extra couple hours really. The game is available on TSN5, RDS2, Sportsnet West and on the radio at TSN1200. In this sentence, I usually make a stupid joke about streaming options but frankly, I’m a little rusty.
Wondering who the Ottawa Senators are, what their strengths are and where they may need improvement? Looking for a reminder on who the hell the Calgary Flames are and what they’ve been up to?
The HEAD2HEAD table can help with all of that.
| HEAD2HEAD |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 9-18-2 (20 pts) | 17-10-6 (40 pts) |
| Goals For | 2.69 (25th) | 3.09 (T-14th) |
| Goals Against | 3.69 (30th) | 2.52 (5th) |
| Power Play | 19.1% (18th) | 21.4% (11th) |
| Penalty Kill | 78.1% (T-21st) | 83.7% (T-5th) |
| Shots For | 28.6 (26th) | 35.2 (4th) |
| Shots Against | 33.9 (28th) | 30.0 (9th) |
| Leading Scorers | Batherson- 28 pts Norris- 22 pts Tkachuk- 22 pts Brown- 17 pts Chabot- 17 pts |
Gaudreau- 38 pts Tkachuk- 31 pts Lindholm- 29 pts Mangiapane- 21 pts Kylington- 19 pts |
| Starting Goalie | TEEBEEDEE | TEEBEEDEE |
