The Senators play the penultimate game of their 5 game road trip tonight with what has to be the latest start time of the year, a 10:30 Eastern start.
A little over a week ago, the Sharks were in the same situation as the Senators - struggling along, winning one, losing one with no consistency whatsoever and then they played the Maple Leafs at home. That 7-0 win started a 5 game winning streak during which they have scored at least 3 goals 4 times and have 21 goals in the 5 games (including parts of 2 overtimes). They have been pushed to extra time in the past 2 games, but have found a way to come away with the extra point both times, most recently a nice 4-3 OT win over the Dallas Stars on Saturday night.
The winning streak coincides with the return of Logan Couture to game shape. He has played 8 games since returning from a couple of devastating leg injuries that held him to 5 games before Christmas. He provides a stabilizing factor and has 3 points in his last 4 games.
First year captain Joe Pavelski has led the way for the most part this season and although he is pointless in his last 2 matches, has 17 points in his last 14, including 3 game winning goals. Brent Burns has been lighting it up from the blue line and leas all NHL defensemen with 18 goals.
Starting goalie Martin Jones, who has been the more successful backup to emerge out of Jonathan Quick's shadow in LA, has already reached the 20 win plateau, 4th in the league and has 4 shutouts, 3rd in the NHL.
Ottawa will be trying to do what they did on Saturday night against the Kings, and that is sweep the season series. Ottawa fell behind 1-0 early in the second period but scored 4 unanswered before Burns got a late one and the Senators won 4-2 on home ice a month ago in the first meeting of the season between the clubs.
There were no changes to the lineup at yesterday's skate for the Senators, meaning Jared Cowen will continue to ride the pine and be joined by Chris Wideman (who had the winner against the Sharks last month) and Max McCormick.
It will be interesting to see if the third period Saturday night was a turning of the corner or if it was just a lightning in a bottle situation that allowed them to be opportunistic and upend the Kings. If they can continue to get production from the third line it will take some of the pressure off the slumping Kyle Turris and Mark Stone, who are both fighting the yips right now and it is showing up at both ends of the ice. Stone has 2 points and is a -10 in his last 9 games while Turris is -12 with just 4 assists in his last 13 games. They certainly need to step up in at least one end of the ice (preferably both) if the Senators want to maintain any level of consistency.
Both of these clubs are in the top 10 in goals per game and also the bottom 10 in goals against per game, so it could be a high-scoring affair. Or, it could absolutely put you to sleep. Who really knows with the way the Senators have played in the last 3 weeks.