The Ottawa Senators are back on the ice for practice this morning ahead of tomorrow night’s match up with the Philadelphia Flyers at the Canadian Tire Centre.
After stumbling out of the gate, the Sens are heating up a little bit as of late, reeling off three straight victories including a 3-2 win over the Florida Panthers on Saturday afternoon. The Senators are now 7-6-4 on the season, which has them just a single point behind the Montreal Canadiens for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. It’s obviously pretty early for scoreboard watching but the stats show that teams that get in too big of a hole early in the season usually have a hard time playing their way back into contention.
Safe to say this three game winning streak could not have come at a better time for the Ottawa Senators.
A fairly light week ahead for the Sens as they’ll take on the Flyers on Tuesday, the Bruins on Friday before closing out the five game home stand with a Sunday afternoon match up against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
It will be interesting to see how Paul MacLean handles his goalies over that three game stretch. When asked about who is starter would be on Tuesday night, MacLean said he would take a couple days to think it over but emphasized that Craig Anderson is this team’s number one goalie and if he’s ready to return, he’ll be in the net. Certainly not easy to take Robin Lehner out right now as he has been one of the primary reasons for the team’s recent turnaround.
Lehner has posted an outstanding 2.13 goals against average and an incredible .945 save percentage in his 8 games this season. Even if Anderson does get back in the net on Tuesday, I would expect that we see Lehner again before the week is out. The Senators are on the ice for practice at 11:00 AM this morning so we’ll see if MacLean tips his hand about who gets the nod against the Flyers tomorrow.
While the NHL team has managed to right the ship over the last few games, the AHL’s Binghamton Senators have also enjoyed some success as of late. The BSens went 3-0 this weekend, winning back to back games against the Rochester Americans before closing out the weekend with a 5-4 win over Hershey last night. Binghamton is now 9-4-0 on the season and sit just a point back of the Division leading Syracuse Crunch.
Mike Hoffman continues to pace the attack in Bingo and now has 16 points through 13 games this season. The next time the Senators look to the farm, it would not be at all surprising to see Hoffman get the call.
-On Remembrance Day, I wanted to take the time to remember, thank and acknowledge the brave men and women that have fought and continue to fight in the name of our Freedom. In particular, those that made the ultimate sacrifice and gave their lives in support of this great country we live in. We are eternally grateful and today, we remember.
