Just over 24 hours after a disappointing loss at the hands of the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Ottawa Senators are right back at it against a tough team from the Western Conference.
The Senators will play a rare Sunday night home game when they faceoff against Daniel and Henrik Sedin and the rest of the Vancouver Canucks.
The schedule has been pretty gruelling for the Senators lately and the losses are starting to pile up. Ottawa has now lost five straight and a quick glance at the games on the horizon suggests that a five game losing streak could become an eight game slide in an awful hurry. Paul MacLean’s team did some good things against the Penguins yesterday afternoon but just couldn’t find a way to close out the game on the road. Effort is one thing but unless this team can find a way to get two points, they’ll quickly find themselves too far back in the Eastern Conference.
A win tonight would certainly ease some of the tension that’s been building around this team lately.
It’s a tough back to back for the Senators but they’ve had about six hours more rest than the Vancouver Canucks who are coming off an ugly performance in Toronto last night. Ryan Miller was pulled from that game and will be eager for a bounce back performance in this one. The Canucks lead the entire NHL with 11 wins on the road this season.
Couple changes expected to the Ottawa line up for this one. Milan Michalek has an upper body injury and comes out of the Ottawa line while Mark Stone is ready to return. Here’s how the Senators are expected to line up for this one.
MacArthur-Turris-Stone
Hoffman-Zibanejad-Ryan
Chiasson-Lazar-Condra
Legwand-Smith-Neil
Phillips-Karlsson
Methot-Ceci
Borowiecki-Gryba
Craig Anderson gets the start in the Ottawa goal. Puck drop is scheduled for just after 7:00 PM with the game available on CityTV. I don’t to overstate the importance of this game but I get the sense that another loss on home ice could mean changes as early as tomorrow.
