For the second straight home game and second time in 10 days the Ottawa Senators will play host to the Philadelphia Flyers tonight. Ottawa wrapped up their 5 game November homestand with a 4-0 shutout win over the Flyers.
Since that night, Ottawa embarked on a relatively successful 4 of 6 point road trip, but are coming off a tough loss to the Arizona Boedkers, the only blemish on the trip. Philadelphia turned a corner after that loss to Ottawa, and have won three of the four games they have played since, including a 3-0 shutout win over the Rangers on Saturday night.
The other two wins (over Carolina and Nashville) in that stretch both saw the Flyers holding a lead but blowing it late before rebounding to get the wins in extra time.
The shutout loss to Ottawa was the final straw for Flyers rookie coach Dave Hakstol, who separated Claude Giroux and Jakob Voracek following the game. It worked as Giroux has 6 points (2G, 4A) and Voracek 4 points in the 4 games since they were split up. Wayne Simmonds snapped a 6 game pointless streak on Saturday, tallying a point on each of the Flyers 3 goals against the Rangers including scoring the game winner and the empty net insurance marker.
The Flyers have not yet confirmed who their starting goalie will be, and it will be an interesting decision. Steve Mason got the shutout on Saturday, but it was his first win in 4 decisions (0-2-2), including the loss to Ottawa where he allowed 4 goals on 31 shots. Michal Neuvirth and Mason have rotated the 4 games since the loss, with Neuvirth picking up wins in both of his starts so Hackstol might chose to keep the rotation going despite the shutout.
Flyers power play was abysmal coming into the game the last time these teams met, but over the last 4 games they have started to turn it around and have gone 4-for-13 with the man advantage.
So for a lot of reasons, this isn't the same Flyers team that the Senators faced 10 days ago. It looks like if they do make a run, the loss to the Sens could be looked at as a turning point for their franchise.
Ottawa will look to avoid the dreaded first home game after a road trip letdown, and avoid losing consecutive games in regulation for the first time since early February last season. They have picked up at least a point in their last 6 home games (4-0-2) and look to continue that streak.
The Senators didn't do much line work in practice yesterday, but it appeared as though there would be no changes and Craig Anderson will get the start now and for the foreseeable future.
The Senators power play was on fire in November and they will look to carry that into December, and don't look now but the much maligned penalty kill is creeping closer the the 80% mark on the strength of killing off 14 of their last 16 in their last 6 home games and 27 of their last 32 total disadvantages in the last 11 games.
After Mark Stone and Kyle Turris got off to sizzling starts in October, it was Erik Karlsson, Mike Hoffman and Bobby Ryan's turn to shoulder the offensive load in November. Karlsson had 15 points, Hoffman 13 and Ryan 12 in the Senators' 12 November games. Whose turn will it be to step up in December, or is it possible that more than one line can finally get hot at the same time?
One player who has actually been pretty consistent over the season is Mika Zibanejad. He had 8 points in October, and added 8 in November despite the winger shuffle he has had to endure so far this season due to injury and performance. I think I even played a shift on his left wing at some point this season, it has been such a revolving door.
It is always interesting to look back when the Senators play the Flyers because Senators fans have a chance to see what might have been. Flyers centre Sean Couturier is the guy that the Senators essentially passed over to draft Zibanejad, and Philadelphia scooped up with the next pick. Couturier was the #1 prospect heading into that draft year but fell to #7 by the draft and really hasn't been as dynamic as many had expected. He is the name most Senators fans expected to hear when the club instead opted for the Iranian Swede.
Both Zibanejad and Couturier are settling into the #2 centre roles on their respective teams, still have a lot of upside and the jury will be out for a couple more years on whether the Senators made the right choice. For a team that is often accused of making the "safer" play when drafting, the Senators took a bit of a risk on the lesser-known Zibanejad and although his journey has been a bit rockier than that of Couturier in terms on NHL presence, Zibanejad trails Couturier by just 7 points despite playing 82 fewer career games.
Couturier is the guy I look at when I keep bringing up the fact that I feel Curtis Lazar should be playing in Binghamton for the long term benefit of both player and club. I would have to think the Flyers expected more offensively than a player who has yet to crack the 40 point plateau in 5 NHL seasons. This is a guy who was kept as an 18/19 year old who was in that realm of being too good to send down but not really fully developed offensively. It may come, like the Senators hope from Lazar, but he has just 5 points in 18 games, which is a 23 point pace over a full season. I think Couturier was mishandled and I fear the same is happening to Lazar.
Maybe the Senators would have handled Couturier differently and he could have developed differently, and points don't mean everything, but I certainly think the choice of Zibanejad over Couturier in June 2011 looks like the right one as of now.