The Ottawa Senators had their last official practice this morning before hitting the road and heading to the Big Apple for tomorrow night’s series opener against the New York Rangers.
The Sens will have one final tune up during their morning skate tomorrow at MSG but for the most part, the time for preparation and predictions is over. It's time to start the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Some good news on the injury front as defenceman Matt Carkner declared himself available for tomorrow night. That means that the Sens head into this series with everyone healthy which was reiterated by MacLean this morning when he said that all players are available.
Based on the way the Sens have lined up this week, it appears as though Klinkhammer and Butler will be the healthy scratches up front. MacLean still has to decide whether Matt Gilroy or Matt Carkner will grab the last spot on the blue line.
Here is how the Sens forwards lined up this morning.
Greening-Spezza-Michalek
Foligno-Turris-Alfie
Smith-O'Brien-Neil
Daugavins-Winchester-Condra
One more sleep. That’s all that separates us from the dizzying highs and heartbreaking lows of playoff hockey.
Nothing really compares to this time of year for a diehard hockey fan. The temperature starts to warm up and a smell of spring is in the air. The days get a little longer and the sun is still up when game time arrives. The hangovers become a little more frequent and that game day nervousness creeps in even though you know it’s something that is beyond your control.
It’s about watching a fan base, a city, a country, rally around something that is bigger than ourselves.
It’s playoff hockey, and it’s just one sleep away.
GO SENS GO!
- Mika Zibanejad, who skated on the Sens top line at yesterday’s practice, will make his Binghamton Senators debut on Friday night. We know Paul MacLean is at least toying with the idea of using Zibanejad in this series but clearly it won’t be in the first couple games.
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For those of you that may have missed the discussion in the comment section, one of our readers has been nice enough to set up a pool using thescore.com. Pretty cool system where you need to stay below the salary cap and can pick a new team each round. Head here to sign up. League name is “SensChirp Playoffs 2012” and the password is chirprlz. I’ll see what I can do about setting up a prize as well but since I plan on winning, expect the prize to be a pat on the back.
