The Columbus Blue Jackets might not be in the playoff picture right now, but the will come in with some momentum Saturday night having dispatched Western Conference powerhouse St. Louis to the tune of a 7-1 thrashing on home ice Friday night.
And they did it without the benefit of a single power play opportunity, as they counted 7 even strength goals, led by Nick Foligno and Ryan Johansen's matching 3 point efforts. Curtis McElhinney made 32 saves for the Blue Jackets, and with Sergei Bobrovsky on the mend, the Senators might see Anton Forsberg between the pipes for the second half of the back to back. The 22 year old freshman is still looking for his first NHL win, something that if feels like the Senators seem to have accommodated to rookie goalies in the past.
For Ottawa, Robin Lehner will get his fifth straight start in the absence of Craig Anderson. Lehner has been in net for both previous games against Columbus this season, and won both as the Senators go for a rare season sweep of any team for them on Saturday night. Lehner has lost 6 of his last 7 decisions in regulation, but in the last two games he can point at lack of goal support (1 goal in each game) as a contributing factor to the L.
Maybe the Blue Jackets' arms will be tired from raising them so much on Friday night, and that will be the edge the Senators need to come away with a win.
SENS AT 50
It might seem like a moot point now, given the ultra-slim playoff hopes, but I have done it after each 10 game segment this season so I will continue it to the end! The Senators reached the 50 game mark on the season with the 2-1 loss to Washington on Thursday.
Here is the adjusted standings, with each team's record at the 50 game mark for the sake of comparison (NYR are at 49). I have included just the last 2 10-game segments so that it isn't too wide.
If you have been following along this season, I have used 12 points for each segment as the benchmark for making the playoffs with relative certainty, and that seems to be the way things are shaking out.
From the Senators' standpoint, they seem stuck in the middle, where nobody really wants them to be. They can't make up ground but they also can't be as brutal as the Sabres and Leafs have been over the past 20 games, which is really astounding. I don't want to accuse those teams of a word that begins with "T" and rhymes with "crank" but the evidence is there, no matter how bad an NHL team is, they should be able to win 3 of every 10 games...
So how have the Sens as a team done against their previous segments?
They had their highest scoring segment of the season, buoyed by the 12 spot they put up against Arizona in 2 games. They also allowed more goals than any other segment, partially due to the fact that Craig Anderson has missed the last 4 games with an injury.
They are still confounding, because they have continued to bring their 5 on 5 Corsi rating closer to even, but aren't winning games with enough regularity when the stats say they have the edge in 5 on 5 possession. But, a .500 record in this session is better than what they have done all season.
The Senators lost 6 games in this 10 game segment, but on the bright side 5 of those losses were by 1 goal, so they aren't getting blown out in many games. They have the 3rd worst record in the league in 1 goal games this season (10-12-9), while in blowout games (3 or more goal differential) the Senators have one of the best records (6th best at 7-4).
As this young team matures, you have to expect that they can find a way to turn some of those 1 goal games around the other way and that will be a big difference in whether they make the playoffs or not next season.