Suddenly, top spot in the Atlantic Division seems within reach.
Okay, maybe it’s been that way for a while now. The Montreal Canadiens are in a wee bit of a free fall and are begging to be caught. In fact, by points percentage, Ottawa has already passed them.
The Senators now sit 6 points back of Montreal and with 5 games in hand. They are tied with the Bruins at 64 points but have five games in hand on them too. Ottawa has a chance to gain ground on both of those teams this week too as the Bruins and Habs have their league mandated five day break.
Meanwhile the Senators have a home game against Buffalo tomorrow, a stop in New Jersey on Thursday and then a weekend back to back in Toronto and home to Winnipeg on Sunday.
Time to put those games in hand to good use.
And as we get set for another important week for the Senators, a quick round-up of Sens related news and notes.
-Third string goalie Andrew Hammond cleared waivers on the weekend and was assigned to Binghamton. Shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that he cleared. He already passed through waivers once this season and he’s barely played since then. With one more year on his deal and two fairly serious injuries already this year, he just isn’t worth the risk at this point. It’s believed that the Los Angeles Kings may have had some interest at one point but that was before the injury. For now though, having three goalies is probably a good thing for the Senators.
-Speaking of goaltending, has anyone noticed the season Marcus Hogberg is having? The 3rd round pick in the 2013 Entry Draft is putting together a quietly spectacular year with Linkopings of the Swedish Elite League. He currently sits 4th in the SEL with a .932 sv% and he’s got an impressive 1.95 GAA. Both numbers are significantly better than what he posted last season. The Senators are hoping he’ll come over to North America next season.
-Logan Brown returned to the Windsor Spitfires line up yesterday for the first time in 9 games. He lasted just two periods. Brown left the game with an undisclosed injury but according to Twitter reports, it may have been an injury to the same hand/wrist that has been bugging him all season. This really has been a disappointing season for Brown. He’s shown flashes of dominance but just hasn’t been able to stay healthy.
-One more while we’re on the topic of prospects. Filip Chlapik is playing out of his mind right now. Of course it helps that he’s on one of the most dominant teams in the QMJHL but the run he’s been on the last little while is pretty impressive. With a four point effort on Saturday, he now has 18 points in his last six games. He now sits 5th in league scoring with 77 points in just 42 games. First in points per game at 1.8.
-If you listen closely, it’s becoming increasingly evident that Pierre Dorion likely isn’t a serious player when it comes to any of the big games on the trade market. While he has kicked tires on Duchene and Landeskog (the organization loves Landeskog, by the way), it sounds like the asking price is more than what the Senators are willing to pay at this point. And it’s that way for most teams right now. Maybe Ottawa circles back closer to the deadline but right now it really doesn’t sound likely they make a big splash in the next couple of weeks.
-The Senators may look at some of the second tier guys available though. Watching this team the last little while, it’s clear they could still use another forward. Boucher has barely used that fourth line and in the last couple games, opted to dress an extra defenceman rather than try to piece together a fourth line. That may work at this point in the season but you need a little more depth come playoff time. Guys like Patrick Eaves, Jarome Iginla, Radim Vrbata and Thomas Vanek would all be an upgrade in the bottom six.
