The Ottawa Senators host the New Jersey Devils Saturday night, and as expected they will be doing so without their top goal scorer of the past two seasons. Mike Hoffman was handed a two game suspension for his boneheaded crosscheck on Logan Couture Wednesday night.
Whether you agree with the length of the ban or not, the fact is the sliding Senators have made a number of on and off ice decisions that are questionable at best and selfish at worst. Casey Bailey, who has been called up from Binghamton, is a big drop off from Hoffman in terms of being able to add anything offensively. Bailey was acquired in the Dion Phaneuf trade from the Maple Leafs, has one goal in six career games, coming two seasons ago with the Leafs. He has nine goals and five assists with the B-Sens in 25 games this season.
The blue line will be bolstered (if you can call it that) by the return from suspension of Mark Borowiecki. Say what you will about Borowiecki's level of play this season, he is still a better option at this point in time than any of the three replacements the Sens have used as their seventh guy so far this season.
And this is one the Senators need to win. A home game against a lower seed and struggling Devils team, needing to stop a 3 game losing streak (0-2-1) with a gaggle of divisional teams on their tails within five points of them. The Devils have lost four straight and the Senators need to stop the bleeding now.
Cory Schnieder has struggled in the Devils net as of late, losing his last three starts and allowing 14 goals over that time frame. He has also faced 110 shots in those three games including 49 by the Canadiens a week ago Thursday, so the Devils have some tightening up to do defensively, just hopefully not tonight for the sake of the Senators.
This is also the first of back to back games for both clubs, with the Senators heading to Brooklyn to face the Islanders Sunday, while the Devils will go just 5 miles or so down the street to Madison Square Garden to face the Rangers. I wonder if to save a few bucks Eugene Melnyk has offered to share a flight out of Ottawa tonight?
I am in upstate New York for the weekend and not sure if I will get to see either game as my travel seems to coincide with weekend double-headers so far this season.
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There were three other newsworthy items coming from the Senators yesterday.
Ottawa announced that they will be starting a Ring of Honor and Byran Murray will be the first name added to it.
The announcement of an outdoor game for next season at TD Place stadium is imminent.
Eugen Melnyk also addressed his disappointment at the sliding attendance (averaging just under 15,300 per game). He pointed the finger at a large amount of home games over the first two months of the season, the problems with the payroll system in the federal government right now, and the runs of the Blue Jays and RedBlacks as possible reasons. While those might have some legitimacy, what he didn't mention was the perception of leaving available salary cap funds on the table that would make the team better in the short term or the decisions such as not inviting popular anthem singer Lyndon Slewidge back to be the clubs opening act as any reasons for the dip in attendance.