The Vegas Golden Knights will be making their first ever appearance in Ottawa this afternoon, bringing a surprisingly good record with them. However, once the goaltenders started to fall, it has been a different story. First, Marc-Andre Fleury sustained a concussion, his understudy Malcom Subban went down in his third game, yeilding the crease to Oscar Dansk who had great numbers and kept the Knights afloat for three games until he ended up on the IR as well.
So now Vegas has turned to option #4, an occurrence that would cripple the chances of most teams let alone a first year expansion team, and it has done just that as the Knights come into Ottawa on a 3 game losing streak with Maxime Lagace between the pipes, backed up by emergency call-up Dylan Ferguson, who was in the WHL with Kamloops last Monday.
Goaltending problems aside, the Golden Knights have been the story of the year and are still holding onto second place in the Pacific Division, so the Senators cannot take them lightly. They last time they appeared to not be ready to play the result was an 8-3 Montreal win on Monday night.
Vegas is led offensively, as expected, by James Neal. The super-pest with offensive skill has seven goals and three assists for 10 points.
Bottom line is, the club is a rag-tag bunch of castoffs that works hard every night and if you don't match their work ethic they will beat you.
Ottawa is coming in off a solid 3-1 win over the Red Wings, led by Mark Stone, Erik Karlsson and Craig Anderson.
Today is Hockey Fights Cancer day in Ottawa, and Nicholle Anderson will be the face of the day after her victorious battle with the disease over the past year.
The Senators called up defenseman Ben Harpur from Belleville last night, so there could be another victim of the viral illness that has been going through the dressing room, but it is not clear if Harpur will play or if it is just as insurance against someone not being able to go, or who that player(s) may be.
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The Ottawa Sun reported today that there was nearly a 3-team deal in place that would have sent Kyle Turris to Nashville, with Matt Duchene coming to Ottawa. What was unclear is what Nashville would have been giving up and if there were more pieces on the table going from Ottawa to Colorado.
According to the Bruce Garrioch article (so you can take it or leave it) Joe Sakic wasn't happy with the return (surprise, surprise) so it fell apart.
It would have also been contingent on Turris signing an extension with the Preds, and if the talks progressed that far to the point where the Predators management and Turris' camp had contract talks, then would Turris knowing his days in Ottawa could be numbered affect his game on the ice?