The suddenly streaking Ottawa Senators roll into Buffalo tonight in search of their fourth straight win overall and fifth straight on the road.
Ottawa has been relegated to the role of spoiler for a while now and are doing a fine job of it. There will be a number of playoff hopefuls hoping Ottawa can find a way to upend the 8th seeded Sabres in Buffalo tonight.
The Sabres are coming off a tough Saturday night loss against the Leafs. Buffalo had a chance to all but close out the Leafs in their playoff push but have instead given them life. Leafs are now just four points out of the final spot.
Meanwhile, Sens fans have been watching the standings for a completely different reason. Ottawa currently sits in 29th in the NHL but are closing in on the free falling Colorado Avalanche. The Avs have lost four straight and are just one point up.
No line up changes expected for the Senators with the exception of a switch in goal. McElhinney was strong against the Bolts on Friday night but Clouston will go back to Anderson against the Sabres.
Here is how tonight’s line up should look.
Greening-Spezza-Butler
Foligno-Smith-Neil
Condra-Shannon-Svatos
Potulny-Winchester-Lessard
Phillips-Lee
Kuba-Karlsson
Smith-Gonchar
Still nothing new to report on the Craig Anderson extension talks. He wants to be a part of this team moving forward but with Bryan Murray’s future still somewhat in doubt, both sides have been hesitant about negotiating a new contract.
Don Brennan wrote about the situation in a piece late last week and it seems pretty clear that Anderson and his agent Justin Duberman would prefer to negotiate with Bryan Murray.
I’ve said it before but from the moment the trade was made for Anderson, there was an extension “ready to go”. Anderson was going to be a free agent target this coming summer so the club already had a pretty good idea what they were going to offer him.
According to Brennan’s article, the two sides will talk extension after the GM’s meetings.
At one point thought to be a “lame duck” GM it starting to look more and more like Bryan Murray could be back with the team as GM next season.
