After completing a sweep of the season series over both the Kings and the Sharks in the past week, the Ottawa Senators will look to avoid the same fate as well as accomplish a few other important items tonight as they visit the Devils.
New Jersey currently occupies the final wild card spot, one point up on the Senators, who also hold a game in hand. This is a piviotal game in that if the Sens lose in regulation, the gap is 3 points and winning that game in hand won't make as much of a difference. Ideally, the Senators win in regulation tonight to take over the final playoff spot and then work on tracking down the Bruins.
The Sens will also be looking to end their season-high 5 game road trip, one that started out so sour, with a winning record and come home on a three game winning streak and 6 of a possible 10 points. A win will also get Ottawa back to a .500 mark on the road.
Marc Methot is still out from the lower body injury and although Mike Hoffman and Kyle Turris both missed practice yesterday it sounds like both have a better than average shot at playing tonight unless something unforeseen happens. Craig Anderson will start for Ottawa, his 4th straight start with Andrew Hammond likely getting the call tomorrow night as the Sens host the Islanders in the middle of a 3 game in 4 night stretch.
{edit 12:15pm: Ottawa has recalled Matt Puempel and sent Freddie Claesson down to Binghamton. Probably means that Hoffman/Turris is/are more doubtful than originally thought. If Methot is indeed out, with Claesson being sent down it means the return of Jared Cowen - and the blue line could look something like Karlsson - Boro, Ceci - Wiercioch, Cowen - Wideman or some iteration of those 6.}
Ottawa has built some momentum in the secondary scoring department in the last 3 games and need to continue that, while also getting Turris and Mark Stone going, as I said yesterday.
That is especially true against the Devils, and Cory Schneider, who has had the Senators' number in his career. Schneider is 5-1-1 with a 1.39 GAA and .957 SP against Karlsson and Co., including a 36 save shutout on Dec 30th in Ottawa to put a bow on 2015. That followed on the heels of a 5-4 shootout win for the Devils in October, meaning that the road team has won both games in the 3 game season series to date and the Senators will want to continue that trend. Ottawa blew a 2 goal lead in the last 6 minutes of the October game, including the tying goal with 32 seconds left before losing in a shootout. That was during the stretch where it seemed every Senators game went to the skills competition while everyone else was enjoying OT conclusions early on in the season.
Devils leading scorer Mike Cammalleri scored twice in that 3-0 shutout but didn't play again after that until the Devils' last game on Tuesday, where he recorded an assist in New Jersey's 4-2 win over the Flames. He missed practice yesterday with the flu, but is expected to play tonight.
Twenty-two year old Reid Boucher, who has had a few cups of coffee with the Devils over the past 3 years, was recently called up again and has contributed 2 goals and 3 points in his 2 game stint so far. Boucher scored his first career NHL goal just over 2 years ago against the Senators. He is a small but skilled offensive player who has just been unable to crack the Devils lineup full time and has had 5 call-ups in the past 2 seasons after playing a 23 game block in the middle of his rookie year in 2013-14.
---- #FreeWickstrand
While that hashtag never became a thing (and somehow John Scott's did???), the Senators relented and loaned defenseman Mikael Wikstrand to Farjestad BK of the Swedish league for the remainder of the season.
Of course, Wikstrand is the prospect who infamously bolted out of training camp to be near his ill brother, without notifying anyone of his plan before he got to the airport and was about to board the plane.
While Bryan Murray gave in, he still isn't happy with the player and stated that his return to North America won't be coming any time soon, and any such discussion will likely come in the off-season.
The bottom line is, if the Senators want to get any mileage out of the investment they have already put into developing him, he needs to be playing somewhere. While they would prefer it to be in Binghamton (and who knows, he might even have got a shot in Ottawa the way things have gone), that wasn't in the cards.
I doubt he will ever play for the Senators organization again, but at least if he is playing there is the chance that they could trade his rights for a late round pick if another team thinks that they can convince him to come over and stay, or is willing to wait for the outcome of his brother's illness (whether recovery or an unfortunate more difficult final result).
Murray wasn't happy with the way things went down, and nobody would have closer knowledge to know what it is like to deal with Cancer, and he might have had a bit more sympathy and maybe even some fatherly (if not general managerly) advice if Wikstrand had approached him and they had a discussion about it and his near future with the game.
It is unfortunate that he has to go through what he is going through, but Wikstrand screwed up and might have ruined a prosperous career, or at least set it back a year or two. This isn't the Senators "giving in" but just a chance to try and somehow salvage something out of the situation.