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On Wednesday night, it appears that the Ottawa Senators will travel to Sunrise, FL to take on the Florida Panthers in what should be a riveting sixty-minutes of fight and hustle between two teams vying for playoff position.

Unfortunately, I can't confirm any of this. It's all rumors!

Why, you ask? Well, there's a good chance you won't catch tonight's regular season action, and no, I really don't have a valid reason as to why. TSN controls the rights to Wednesday night hockey and opted to take the more ratings-friendly tilt between the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens. Hard to blame 'em.

Naturally, many Canadian viewers would take to their computers to grab a stream - legal or otherwise - of the Florida Panthers broadcast. One problem: That doesn't exist either. So, no TSN, and no FSFL. Those of you hoping for a contingency plan/agreement between TSN and Sportsnet in the rare instance that one of their Canadian teams might not get airtime are wasting your time, too.

TSN2 - which could've easily carried the Ottawa and Florida tilt - has opted to broadcast San Antonio and Toronto instead. Hard to blame TSN here, too, with the way the Toronto Raptors are pushing towards the playoffs.

Sorry, that was uncalled for. I'm living in the moment after Jeremy Lin's heat-check bomb at the buzzer to bury the Raptors (again) last night. Greatest story in sports this year - it's not even close.

So, here's what Canadian - and American - fans are left with if they want to watch tonight's game: Old-fashioned radio, or a scoreboard feed that's probably going to be historically bad. A complete and total clusterfuck that would rival a high school production. Hard to believe that in Year 2012, we still have meaningful regular season games without any broadcast partner.

As for the game itself - Ottawa's on the second-half of a back-to-back, fresh off of a 4-0 bludgeoning of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Florida has to like seeing their rival beaten into the ground - another kill shot to any hope they have at jumping into the playoff race. Still, the Panthers know that if they can't win the Southeast division, Ottawa becomes their main competition for one of the final playoff spots in the Eastern Conference.

The Florida Panthers come into tonight's tilt with an impressive 27-17-11 record (65 PTS), good for a four-point lead ahead of second-place Washington(61 PTS). Winnipeg (58 PTS) and Tampa Bay (55 PTS) are still in the mix, but it's certainly shaping up like the Panthers' division to lose right now.

Florida's led by three key scorers in Tomas Fleischmann, Kris Versteeg, and Stephen Weiss, all of whom have surpassed the forty-point mark on the year. The Panthers are usually as good as their dangerous top-six goes, so it'll be imperative for Ottawa to slow the attack in the same manner that they did against Tampa Bay on Tuesday.

No confirmation on the goaltender just yet, but I'd expect Jose Theodore to get the nod from head coach Kevin Dineen. Theodore's been solid all season long, posting a 15-9-5 record, .918 save percentage, and 2.45 GAA.

He'll oppose Craig Anderson of the Ottawa Senators, who is fresh off of an impressive shutout against Tampa Bay. Anderson's 26-19-6 on the season, with a .909 save percentage and 2.95 GAA.

Don't expect many lineup changes from Paul MacLean and the rest of the coaching staff. They spoke candidly about the overall play last night, meaning Zenon Konopka and Matt Carkner should again be best friends in the press box above.

The Panthers are still without a number of key assets, including Ed Jovanovski, Dmitry Kulikov, Scottie Upshall, and Marco Sturm. Jason Garrison is questionable for tonight's action, but would provide a nice boost for a club that has benefited mightily from his recent offensive prowess.

Puck drops at 7:30 PM ET. For those masochists who really want to take in the shittiest broadcast in the history of sports, Centre Ice is offering a free-trial all week long, meaning if you have access to the package in any way (e.g. DirecTV), the game should be available.

Ottawa Senators
Michalek-Spezza-Butler
Greening-Turris-Alfie
Daugavins-Smith-Condra
Foligno-O'Brien-Neil

Kuba-Karlsson
Phillips-Gonchar
Cowen-Lee

Florida Panthers
Fleischmann-Weiss-Versteeg
Bergenheim-Goc-Samuelsson
Santorelli-Matthias-Kopecky
Bradley-Madden-Skille

Campbell-Gudbranson
Weaver-Ellerby
Strachan-Robak

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Thanks for reading!

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