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Game Day: Ottawa @ Nashville |
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The Ottawa Senators head west after a successful home stand and look to do something they haven't done yet this season - win three games in a row.
To do so, they will have to sweep the Predators in the season series, after Mike Hoffman's OT winner in Ottawa a couple of weeks ago gave the Senators the 4-3 win.
Ottawa is playing their best hockey of the season, and if they had been playing like this through November and January, this current stretch wouldn't be all for naught, but it is still much better to watch a team that is competitive win or lose than to see a team that has given up.
Whether that stretch continues or whether the club is pared down of as many as 5 or 6 current members before next Monday's trade deadline remains to be seen, so enjoy it while it lasts.
While the Senators have won 5 straight at home, it has been a different story away from Canadian Tire Centre. Wins have been few and far between, and they have won a league-low 7 road games (7-16-4), and that is after starting out at 4-0-1 including the Sweden "road" game before the wheels fell off the season.
They haven't won a road game in regulation since beating the Leafs 4-3 on January 10th, with only an OT win over the Flyers to show for the 7 games since.
The Predators are in a heated race with the Jets for the top seed in the Central, and they have hit a bit of a speed bump, having lost 4 of their last 6 and two straight, while the Jets have won 3 straight to open up a 2 point lead. The Predators do hold 2 games in hand, and you have to think they are looking at this one as, if not a must win then definitely a "need to win" game against a bottom-feeder from the other conference.
Freddie Claesson will get in to this game in place of Ben Harpur. Expect to see a pairing of Cody Ceci and Mark Borowiecki as the second pair, with a revolving door on the first pair with Erik Karlsson, who will see time with Thomas Chabot, Johnny Oduya and Claesson at various parts of the game. For those who like a more structured group, this won't be good news and constant changes to lines and pairs leads to things like too many men on the ice penalties, which has plagued the club all season.
The starting goalies haven't been confirmed as of yet, but Craig Anderson has won 5 straight decisions including the win over the Predators so he will likely get the nod. As for the Predators, this is the first half of a back to back, with the second coming tomorrow night in Detroit so they will likely split the starts between Pekka Rinne and Juuse Saros for those two games.
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Chris Wideman, recovering from a devastating torn hamstring, had some fun yesterday inviting anyone who was listening out to the Dovercourt outdoor rink for some ODR hockey. By all accounts a bunch of people took him up on the offer and a great afternoon was had by all. That probably did more for Sens public relations than what part-time CEO Eugene Melnyk will do in the next year!
Good on Wideman for doing that.
Ottawa Senators Blogger • 
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