The Ottawa Senators were able to get back on track on Tuesday night with an important win over the Tampa Bay Lightning.
They will look to build on that tonight when they take on the Eastern Conference leading New York Rangers. The Blueshirts have a six point lead over the second place team in the East and are tied with the St. Louis Blues in the race for the President’s Trophy.
As good as the Rangers have been, they are coming off an ugly loss at the hands of Devils on Tuesday night and should be a motivated group. The Senators hold a 2-1-0 record against New York this season with the only loss coming at SBP back in November.
Tonight’s game kicks off a stretch that will see the Sens play six of their next eight games within the friendly confines of SBP. If Ottawa is going to have any chance of chasing down the teams in front of them, they need to get hot on home ice.
Ben Bishop will make his second straight start in the Ottawa goal. While Bishop did give up a couple goals I’m sure he’d like to have back, he did a fine job of settling in as the game moved along. Bishop made a couple of key stops in the third period to preserve the Sens lead.
Martin Biron will start for the Rangers.
Chris Phillips and Jim O’Brien will both play tonight which makes Carkner, Butler and Konopka the healthy scratches. Here is how the Sens are expected to line up.
Greening-Spezza-Michalek
Klinkhammer-Turris-Alfie
Daugavins-Smith-Condra
Foligno-O'Brien-Neil
Kuba-Karlsson
Cowen-Gonchar
Phillips-Gilroy
Puck drop is scheduled for just after 7:30 PM with all the action available on Sportsnet and TVA Sports.
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Over the past few season, nobody has been as active in the NCAA free agency market as Ottawa Senators GM Bryan Murray.
We have seen him pursue the likes of Jesse Winchester, Bobby Butler and Stephan Da Costa and according to an interview with Tim Murray on Tuesday night, the Senators are looking at a few options again this year.
Here is what I’ve been able to dig up in terms of NCAA free agents the Sens are rumoured to be looking at, including two defenceman and one forward.
Matt Tennyson, a 6’2 defenceman playing at Western Michigan, Cameron Schilling– a 21 year old defender out of Miami and JT Brown, a forward playing at Minnesota-Deluth are all believed to be on the team's radar. It's entirely possible that the Sens have their eyes on some other guys as well but these are a few of the names out there.
The name that comes up most often in this year’s NCAA class, 6’8 Andrej Sustr seems to also make sense as a potential target. This article posted on the CBC website suggests the Sens may have some interest.
