That win over the Boston Bruins on Monday night was one of those character-building type efforts you love to see from a rebuilding hockey team.
It was a game that shows that when this young group is all pulling in the same direction and buying into what the Head Coach is selling, they can beat anyone. Consistency has been the biggest issue for DJ Smith’s group this season but when they are clicking, they look a tough team to play against.
Those two points may not have meant much in the standings but it served as a good in-season reminder that there are indeed better days ahead for this hockey team. And they may not be as far down the line as we think.
The Ottawa Senators look to build on Monday’s effort when they visit the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre on Wednesday night.
This marks the second match-up between these two teams with the Senators getting the better of the Habs last time around. Brady Tkachuk scored the overtime winner that night in what was another one of Ottawa’s best games of the season.
They were on a back to back that night and still found a way to grind out a win in a pretty tough building.
The Montreal Canadiens are the ones on the tail end of a back to back this time, coming off an impressive win over the Penguins last night in Pittsburgh. Rookie Cayden Primeau is expected to get the start in goal. Carey Price will take his place sometime early in the second period.
Despite the fact that a good portion of the fan base has this Sens team penciled into a bottom five spot, it’s interesting that with a regulation win tonight, they would be just five points back of a Habs team that likes to think of itself a playoff-bound team.
For no other reason than the fact that sad Bell Centre fans makes me happy, I am officially declaring this to be THE BIGGEST GAME OF THE YEAR.
DJ Smith met with the media yesterday and said the plan is to go with the game line up as the other night against Boston. Tough to mess with success.
Will be interesting to see how ice time is allocated on the road. Both Logan Brown and Jonathan Davidsson played less than ten minutes and their linemate Nick Paul was just a shade over 11 minutes. On the blueline, Cody Goloubef played just a shade over 12 minutes.
Here’s how Ottawa is expected to line up for this one.
Tkachuk-Pageau-C.Brown
Ennis-Anisimov-White
Namestnikov-Tierney-Duclair
Paul-L.Brown-Davidsson
Chabot-DeMelo
Borowiecki-Zaitsev
Hainsey-Goloubef
Anders Nilsson is expected to get the start in goal for Ottawa.
Puck drop is scheduled for just after 7:30 PM but there could be a bit of a delay as the Canadiens will have a pregame ceremony to honour their Owner, Jean Gabriel Pageau. The game is available on Sportsnet, RDS and will be made available by internet pirates on shady looking websites all across the internet.
And now the HEAD2HEAD table where you’ll learn that one of these teams has three French-Canadian leading scorers.
You won’t BELIEVE which one it is.
| HEAD2HEAD |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 13-17-1 (27 pts) | 14-11-6 (32 pts) |
| Goals For | 2.71 (21st) | 3.19 (11th) |
| Goals Against | 3.10 (T-20th) | 3.29 (28th) |
| Power Play | 9.3% (31st) | 20.0% (13th) |
| Penalty Kill | 82.% (12th) | 75.8% (28th) |
| Shots For | 30.1 (23rd) | 34.9 (1st) |
| Shots Against | 32.2 (22nd) | 31.8 (19th) |
| Leading Scorers | Pageau- 23 pts Duclair- 22 pts Chabot- 19 pts |
Tatar- 27 pts Gallagher- 25 pts Weber- 25 pts |
| Starting Goalie | Anders Nilsson 8-8-1 3.03 GAA, .913 sv% |
Cayden Primeau 0-1-0 3.10 GAA, .914 sv% |
