With just about every expert predicting a New York Rangers win in Round One, the Ottawa Senators are back in their familiar role as underdog.
And while some Sens fans might be concerned that every expert is siding with the Rangers, they can and should take comfort in the fact that these were the same “experts” that had the Sens near the bottom of the pack before the season started.
NHL.com posted their predictions yesterday and 13 of 13 sided with the New York Rangers. Ottawa is definitely the underdog in this series, but there is reason for optimism in the Nation’s Capital.
The fact that the Sens owned the season series between the two teams should give them a bit of a mental boost heading into Thursday. The Senators took 3 of 4 against the Rangers, including both games at Madison Square Garden. Ottawa knows they can win in that building. MacLean’s group held the Rangers to just eight goals in the season series which is coincidentally the same number of third period goals the Sens scored.
New York may be the top team in the East but the Senators have shown they can play them tough.
Bit of a wrinkle at practice this morning as Mika Zibanejad joined the top line with Spezza and Michalek while Greening shifted to the fourth line with Winchester and Neil. Here is how the Sens lined up this morning.
Michalek- Spezza-Zibanejad
Foligno-Turris-Alfredsson
Smith-O'Brien-Condra
Greening-Winchester-Neil
Kuba-Karlsson
Phillips-Gilroy
Cowen- Gonchar
While things can change, it looks like Rob Klinkhammer, Zenon Konopka and Bobby Butler are the odd men out to start the series. The Senators will travel to New York tomorrow and settle in before Thursday's series opener at Madison Square Garden.
- The New York Rangers were without Marian Gaborik and Ryan Callahan at their practice but both rejoined the team today. Apparently Gaborik is fighting a little bit of the flu but was feeling well enough to practice this morning. Would be a shame if that flu started making its way around the Rangers locker room.
- The NHL Draft Lottery will be held tonight and aired on TSN. Boy it sure is nice to not have to care about that this season.
