First off, the very sad news came down this morning that Jonathan Pitre, AKA the Butterfly Child, who gained notoriety in his battle with a debilitating, painful and very rare skin disease, passed away in hospital in Minnesota on Wednesday night.

Pitre was a huge Senators fan and as the story of his battle became public and raised awareness of EB (epidermolysis bullosa), he became an inspiration to the team and the entire fan base, not only in Ottawa but around the league as the story spread.

He was even invited to to the pre-game in-arena "Pump up" in Minnesota just over one year ago when the entire Senators team paid a visit to the teen's home to surprise him.

The native of nearby Russel, ON, was 17.

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With heavy hearts, the Senators will pay a visit to Pittsburgh to face the Penguins tonight, in their penultimate game of the season.

Bobby Ryan, who left Wednesday's game with a lower body injury after taking a couple of hits, is expected to play, but Mark Stone has been shut down for the season. Barring an offensive explosion from Mike Hoffman in the next two games, Stone will finish tied with Erik Karlsson (who will also sit out the remaining games) for the team lead in points, which also means Karlsson will be the first defenseman to lead his team in scoring six times.

Other injury news, the Senators released a statement saying Marian Gaborik has had back surgery, it was apparently successful and he should make a full recovery.

Craig Anderson will get the start with Mike Condon injured, looking to even up his record at 25-25-6 with a win.

Thomas Chabot will be looking to break a tie with Karlsson for the team lead in goals from the blue line, and match (and even break) the club record for goals by a rookie defenseman.

For the Penguins, this will be their last game of the season and a win will assure they have home ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs, whether they face the Devils or Blue Jackets. Phil Kessel scored in overtime last night as the Pens got a much needed win over Columbus to stay a point ahead of them and the Devils.

And it doesn't mean a whole lot, but a win would also give the Penguins their 9th 100-point season in the last 12 (10th if you project the lockout season to a full 80 games). By the way, the other 2 seasons were 98 and 99 points, showing a magnificent level of consistency for the franchise.

Evgeni Malkin sits at 97 points, and could reach the 100 point mark, which would mark the fourth time in his career he would reach the milestone.

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