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Winners in three of their last four games, the Ottawa Senators are hoping to protect home ice one again on Thursday night, but tonight's challenge is quite daunting. The Florida Panthers roll into town playing the franchise's best hockey in perhaps a decade, and so far, they look every bit the part of a playoff team this season.
To call this game 'crucial' is a bit of an exaggeration, but with how tight the Eastern Conference is right now, points in every game are - to say the least - important. The Florida Panthers might be a superior team, but the Ottawa Senators have played well on home ice and have already beaten Florida in the lone tilt between the two teams.
Unfortunately for the Senators, they're going to be without a couple of players, two of which could be sidelined long-term. Milan Michalek's still about a week away from returning, and he's targeting December 27th - a home match against Montreal - for his comeback. Two other names - Peter Regin and Jesse Winchester - aren't expected back anytime soon. Regin suffered - wait for it - another shoulder injury, and could very well miss a significant amount of time. Jesse Winchester was dropped on a Paul Gaustad hit of the dangerous variety, and he's already been flagged with a concussion.
With a pair of forwards down, Bobby Butler's time in the press box will be expectedly short-lived, and Ottawa will be forced to skate with seven defensemen.
If Ottawa's serious about winning tonight, they'll have to quiet a relentless Florida top-six that has seemingly cut through every defense in the National Hockey League. The first-line of Fleischmann-Weiss-Versteeg has been absolutely deadly all season long, combining for a jaw-dropping 39G/58A(97PTS!) in just 34 GP.
So, what's holding this Florida Panthers team back? In one word - injuries. The laudable depth on this roster has been beaten apart with injuries to Scottie Upshall, Marcel Goc, Mikael Samuelsson, Marco Sturm,and Jack Skille; all of whom are all out of the lineup tonight.
Sean Bergenheim is also questionable for tonight's tilt.
Opposing the Florida attack will be Craig Anderson of the Ottawa Senators, who slowly is regaining his composure after a poor start to the year. For as much heat as Anderson caught for his lackluster play early on, he's really played better, even if his numbers don't jump off of the page. His career splits v. Florida, though, are incredibly encouraging: 5-0-1 record, .931 save percentage, and a 2.13 GAA.
No word yet on who is getting the cage for the Florida Panthers, but I'd expect Jose Theodore to get the nod. Theodore in his career v. Ottawa: 8-14-4 record, .898 save percentage, and a 3.17 GAA.
Puck drops at 7:30 PM ET on S-NET Sens. Unfortunately, I won't be around to catch the game in real-time, so I've called on the Mariano Rivera of HockeyBuzz to close this one out. Richard Cloutier's filling in for the night, so he'll be dialed in for all sixty minutes. Show the guy some love - he's helping out in a big way.
I've picked up the Edmonton v. Vancouver post-game on December 26th in exchange. So, while Clouts is firing it up with the family, I'll be locked into a Western Alberta battle.
Hey, I'm not complaining.
Florida Panthers
Fleischmann-Weiss-Versteeg
Kopecky-Matthias-Bradley
Repik-Kennedy-Dadonov
Thomas-Santorelli-Barch
Campbell-Garrison
Gudbranson-Jovanovski
Weaver-Kulikov
Ottawa Senators
Alfredsson-Spezza-Greening
Condra-Turris-Foligno
Daugavins-Smith-Neil
Butler-Konopka-X(Lee? Carkner?)
Kuba-Karlsson
Cowen-Gonchar
Phillips-Carkner(Lee?)
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Thanks for reading!
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