Ottawa heads into Chicago for the second of a quick 2 game road trip,k where they have a rare opportunity to face a team in more turmoil than they are.

The Blackhawks are in a tailspin right now, and they find themselves in the unfamiliar position of being outside the playoffs looking in with barely a flicker of playoff hope before the trade deadline.

Chicago has lost 9 of their last 10 (1-8-1) and have are the only team without at least 2 wins in their last 10. The slide has them sitting a full 13 points back of the Wild for the second Wild Card spot.

The Senators put Gabriel Dumont on waivers, probably hoping someone picks him and his $600K contract up, because he hasn't done much in his time as a Senator. His spot can be far better utlilized by a younger prospect at this point in time.

Chicago will also be looking to retool, and they started that process by trading depth defenseman Michal Kempny to Washington on Wednesday.

Quite honestly, it is difficult to come up with an angle for this one as to why it matters, other than to hope for some entertainment and continued development of younger players. Determining who will be around in a week's time is anyone's guess, and investing in this group that might have as many as 1/3 of them playing elsewhere in 5 days combined with other off-ice issues give me pause and force me to take a wait and see approach.

While the Senators are expected to be active ahead of Monday's deadline, the rumors continue that teams are calling about Erik Karlsson, and while a deadline deal is unlikely, Ottawa is listening to offers and if they hear one that blows their socks off, or one that might also package Bobby Ryan in the deal, it is possible that it goes down.

A Karlsson trade, whether it happens now or at the draft, would be a tough blow but as I have said multiple times over the past few weeks, it might be the best thing in the long term, if you can get over the short term pain of losing a franchise player in his prime.

Until a deal is agreed to or a trade is made, the speculation will not end, and if Pierre Dorion doesn't already know a decent contract is in the works (even if it can't be made official until July 1), then he probably needs to move on now to get maximum return.

It is not as imperative now that the Senators are out from under Dion Phaneuf's contract, but only slightly less so because of the Gaborik contract that they had to take back in its wake.

It is unlikely that Dorion will be able to kill two birds with one stone, meaning getting away from Ryan's contract AND adding a bounty of assets for the captain, but the contract that Karlsson is going to get scares the life out of me, and I think, barring a return to form that he hasn't shown yet since his off-season ankle surgery, that is a 100M+ gamble that I would prefer to see someone else make, because I don't think the Senators can win in the window Karlsson's prime provides, for reasons I have given numerous times in previous posts when the subject has come up.

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