The trip may have ended with a loss, but there were actually a lot of encouraging signs during this recent California swing.
First, they snapped that pesky eight game losing streak in Anaheim. And then the Ottawa Senators followed that up with another impressive performance against the Kings. Two wins in a row had the Sens movin’ on up in the league standings.
Operation Don’t Finish Last appeared to be on the right track.
And while they ended up on the wrong end of a 4-1 final on Saturday in San Jose, it was another solid effort. Considering they went West without their top centre, their best defenceman and their starting goalie, four out of a possible six points is ain’t bad. A step in the right direction.
Still, the Senators find themselves in 30th place overall and just one point clear of Gritty and the Philadelphia Flyers. At the same time, there are about eight teams within striking distance. Playoffs is a pipe dream but without a first round pick, the goal really is to just finish as high as possible.
The Senators now return home and prepare for the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday night.
Those preparations include some roster shuffling early this morning.
Roster update: The #Sens have re-assigned forward Darren Archibald and defenceman Stefan Elliott to Belleville (AHL).
Mise à jour alignement : Les #Sens ont cédé Darren Archibald et Stefan Elliott à Belleville (LAH).
— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) January 14, 2019
Matt Duchene should be ready to go on Wednesday after missing the last three games and last we heard, Thomas Chabot was progressing well and nearing a return as well. He’s skating with a regular jersey at practice this morning. Craig Anderson is out there too.
We’ll find out more on their status later today. Here’s how the team lined up at practice today…
Tkachuk-Tierney-Stone
Dzingel-Duchene-Ryan
Smith-Pageau-Paajarvi
Balcers-Paul-Boedker
Chabot-DeMelo
Lajoie-Ceci
Borowiecki-Jaros
Wolanin-Harpur
Falk
Also, Guy Boucher is not on the ice for practice today.
-The bid to save the RendezVous LeBreton partnership is approaching crunch time. The National Capital Commission had previously indicated that they would terminate the agreement with RendezVous LeBreton effective January 19th but it sounds like an extension may be in the cards. This morning, we learned that the arbitrator working with Eugene Melnyk and John Ruddy has asked the NCC to extend the deadline to February 28th. It seems crazy considering the two sides have had more than 24 months to work through their differences. The NCC is expected to meet today to discuss the possibility of an extension.
