After an unlikely, perhaps undeserved win, but a win nonetheless in Montreal on Tuesday, the Senators return home to face the Bruins in an important mid-season game.
The Senators sit 1 point ahead of the Bruins in the standings, with the Senators sitting in the third spot in the Atlantic while Boston sits just outside the Wild Card spot. There isn't much room for error even this early, and the Senators need to build some momentum coming off the win in Montreal.
Boston is coming in off a 4-2 home ice loss to St. Louis, a game where they outshot the Blues 41-28. Not only did they lose the game, but they also lost captain Zdeno Chara to a lower body injury during the game. Chara will miss at least one game, conveniently tonight's tilt in Ottawa. Although he isn't the same player he was, it still works to the Senators advantage that Chara will miss this one.
Patrice Bergeron has been struggling offensively, with just one point (a goal) in his last 8 games and just 5 point in 16 games on the season, but the slack has been picked up by the likes of David Pastrnak, who leads the team with ten goals. Brad Marchand (6-11-17) and David Krejci (2-10-12) are the other two Bruins with more than ten points.
Like the Canadiens, the Bruins have been buoyed by brilliant goaltending from their #1 guy. Tuukka Rask has been stellar this season, with a 1.57 GAA and .942 save percentage, among the top 5 in each category. Craig Anderson was good against Montreal in allowing 3 goals, but he could hardly be blamed for at least a couple of them.
Ottawa got great games (and more importantly, goals) from many of their best players. It was almost by accident Guy Boucher found a combination that might work going forward in Mark Stone, Derick Brassard and Mike Hoffman. They were put together because of the Senators' penalty issues and the lineup juggling that resulted and the mix worked, with Hoffman and Stone each coming out with a goal and two assists and Brassard adding a goal and an assist.
However, at practice yesterday Stone was back with Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Zack Smith, and Tom Pyatt was with Brassard and Hoffman. I am not quite sure why Boucher would go away from a combination that worked so well, especially since those three guys had been struggling to find the net, but making those decisions is why he gets paid the big bucks. (EDIT: From the morning skate it appears to be Hoffman - Brassard - Stone and Dzingel - Turris - Ryan, so there may be a (hockey) God after all. )
Some good news was that Bobby Ryan took a regular turn with Kyle Turris and Ryan Dzingel, meaning he might be more likely than not to play tonight despite the broken finger he sustained a couple of games ago.
Dion Phaneuf didn't skate yesterday but it was just a maintenance day and he will be good to go against the Bruins. With only five defensemen on the ice, Max McCormick filled his spot on the blue line with Cody Ceci as a placeholder. (EDIT: Freddie Claesson was called up this morning as insurance, but no changes are expected on the blue line)
It is a big two divisional points in what could be a race to the wire in the Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference, and more important for the Senators to protect home ice and build some momentum ahead of a back to back on the weekend, home to the Hurricanes on Saturday and then at Madison Square Garden to face the Rangers on Sunday.