...they might never win another one.
While the Senators play the middle contest of their 6 game road trip, they face an opponent who checks off a lot of the boxes in what you would like to be facing.
The Ducks are playing their dreaded first game back after a six game road trip of their own, and played Tuesday night in Vegas, requiring extra time and a shootout to boot.
The Ducks are also limping into this one with an injury list that includes Ryan Getzlaf, Ryan Kesler, Jakob Silverberg, Patrick Eaves, Hampus Lindholm.
It wasn't a successful road trip by any means, and they are 1-4-3 in their last 8 games.
Normally, facing the backup goalie is a good thing, but Ryan Miller has been good in his seven starts, with a 5-2 record, 2.02 GAA and .932 SP. John Gibson played last night so in all likelihood it will be Miller facing the struggling Senators.
So, the Ducks appear to be ripe for the picking, but Ottawa will definitely have to put forth a better effort than they did in their last outing in Winnipeg.
The Senators' confidence in themselves and their teammates has to be down, regardless of what they say publicly, and the fact of the matter is that they are falling farther and farther out of the playoff race and if they can't beat a team with the deck stacked against them, after a couple of days off, then it probably isn't meant to be.
They will turn back to Craig Anderson, who allowed 5 goals and was yanked in his last start, but looked good in his relief appearance in Winnipeg albeit after the game was out of hand.
Guy Boucher skated the team hard on Tuesday and also let them have it verbally as practice ended. We will see what effect the tongue-lashing has on the team, or if as some have suggested, the shelf life of "the system" has expired.
This is probably as close to a must-win game as you can have in December, not only in the standings but for the psyche as well, because of all the reasons I listed about why the Ducks shouldn't win this one. If I know that, then you can be sure the players and staff know it.
It should be interesting, and hopefully they make it worth staying up on consecutive nights, because they are at Staples Center tomorrow night to face the Kings.