It was good news bad news for the Senators as they finished their homestand on a winning note but may have cost them a number one centre, at least short term. With about 2 minutes left and the Senators trailing by a goal Kyle Turris got tangled up with Casey Cizikas and sustained a leg injury that looked bad. Fortunately, there were no broken bones and Turris will apparently travel with the team on the road trip this week so it isn't as bad as it looked.
That was the bad news. The good news is that despite trailing the Islanders for almost 48 minutes Mike Hoffman scored his team-leading 14th goal of the season with the goalie pulled for an extra attacker to gain a point. Then Erik Karlsson capped a 3 point night with the OT winner on a 2-on-1 with Bobby Ryan to rescue 2 points that it didn't look like they would come away with for most of the game.
The Islanders took the early lead on a pinball-type goal that Matt Martin just threw towards the net from the side boards. The shot would have went way wide, but Mark Borowiecki put his stick on and deflected it wider. Unfortunately it then went off his back leg and right behind Craig Anderson, who had no chance on the play.
Anderson and Jaroslav Halak had a goaltending duel and it made for a tight game until the Islanders' Jason Baily whacked home a second rebound with Anderson down and out having made the first two saves to give the Islanders a 2-0 lead that the way things were going looked like more than enough.
But the Islanders playing the night before seemed to catch up with them, and combined with the urgency the Senators started to play with was just enough as Ottawa started the comeback with a give and go between Karlsson and Mark Stone saw Stone net his 5th of the season through an Alex Chiasson screen to make it at least an interesting last 10 minutes.
Ottawa had their chances earlier on, and it looked like Halak had Hoffman's number on the night as the speedster had breakaways in the second and third that were both turned aside by the Islanders' netminder, but Hoffman ended up with the last laugh.
It was a character win against a similarly placed team in a game where overtime was almost inevitable given their recent track records, and Ottawa came away with the extra point.
Now, with or without Turris, the games must go on and there is no rest for the weary...
The Senators travel to MSG for the first and only time this season to face a tough Rangers team that is reeling a little bit and will be looking to use the Senators to get back on track.
The Rangers are 1-4-1 in their last 6 games, scoring just 10 goals in that span, but netting 1 or less 4 times. The have also allowed 18 in those six games, uncharacteristically high for a normally defensively sound Rangers team.
Perhaps it is the large number of shots the Rangers allow that is catching up to them, because after the Senators the Rangers sit 4th in shots allowed, but goaltending has been their strong point and they are still allowing just 2.04 goals on average despite recent struggles. Henrik Lundqvist will start after getting a rest in Thursday's loss to Colorado.
With two days off, you can bet the Rangers are chomping at the bit to get a piece of the tired Senators, who will likely start Craig Anderson in the back to back as Andrew Hammond wasn't activated off IR yesterday so it is unlikely it will happen today.
The Senators are 1-3 in the second half of back to back situations, winning their last one in Colorado after beating Dallas on the western road trip. Anderson is 1-1 in the second half when he starts both ends of the back to back situations.
Erik Karlsson is certainly back in Norris form as he has 20 points in his last 12 games, and has been held pointless just once in that span. He now sits 4th in league scoring and has back to back 3 point efforts. The offense of the Senators runs through him and as he goes, so do the Senators.