Onward but hopefully not upward.
After an unexpected and completely unnecessary win over the Florida Panthers on Thursday night, the Ottawa Senators have just five games left to play in the 2017/2018 regular season.
They head into tonight’s action, tied with the Arizona Coyotes for 30th overall. Although Ottawa has a game in hand. Falling all the way to last place is unlikely now but this is certainly no time for an accidental winning streak.
Ottawa is just two points back of Vancouver, three back of Montreal and only four points clear of this afternoon’s opponent- the Detroit Red Wings.
After today, the Senators travel back to Ottawa for a game against the high flying Jets before closing out their season with three straight road games in Buffalo, Pittsburgh and Boston.
Losses. Need losses.
Every other team in the race for the bottom plays tonight too. Buffalo is in Nashville. Arizona hosts St. Louis. Montreal visits the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Vancouver Canucks are home to the Blue Jackets.
Big night in the basement.
Erik Karlsson stayed behind on the last road trip but he did make the trip to Detroit. That means the Senators will likely go with a similar line up to the one that beat the Panthers on Thursday night. No morning skate with the early start but a best guess for now.
Dzingel-Duchene-Ryan
Hoffman-Pageau-Pyatt
Paajarvi-Smith-White
McCormick-Chlapik-Burrows
Chabot-Karlsson
Borowiecki-Ceci
Wolanin -Claesson
Mike Condon gets the start in goal. Puck drop is scheduled for just after 2:00 PM.
