Like so many other teams recently, the Pittsburgh Penguins couldn't do the Senators a favor on Saturday. As a result, like I said yesterday, there is a new target for the Ottawa Senators in the playoff race, but if they are going to make up ground they must win tonight when they host the Flyers.
That is because the two teams tied for the two wild card spots play each other when Boston visits Washington, in a game that almost must end in regulation either way, and the way the two teams are playing right now, Washington is much riper for the picking. That, and Ottawa has 2 games in hand on the Caps and just one on the Bruins. The Senators trail by 7 points and play each team once in their remaining schedule.
However, what happens in Washington won't mean a thing if the Senators can't beat the Flyers on home ice. Philadelphia comes in off a 7-2 win over the Red Wings on the strength of 3 power play goals. This is a unit that had just 1 goal on the man advantage in their last 7 games before yesterday, so if they have that unit going it might be trouble for Ottawa, who has taken some bad and untimely penalties in the last couple of games.
The Flyers sit 3 points behind Ottawa and 10 out of a playoff spot but have just 12 games remaining in their schedule and are embarking on a 4 game Canadian road trip. For a team that hasn't been very good outside Philadelphia this must feel like a death march for a club that had great expectations. Ray Emery is expected to get the start against his former team tonight.
For Ottawa, it would be shocking if Andrew Hammond wasn't given the opportunity to extend his points streak to 101 straight games. He hasn't allowed more than 2 goals in any NHL appearance, whether as a starter or in relief and if that string continues the Senators should be in pretty good shape.
Offensively, the strength of the Senators of late has been their relentless pressure on the forecheck, and the ability to spend more time in the offensive end than the defensive end. And (this just in) that leads to successful teams. If the Flyers are vulnerable anywhere, it is their blue line and its struggle to move the puck.
The Senators must be aware of the Flyers' top line of Claude Giroux, Jakub Voracek and (it appears right now to be) Brayden Schenn. Voracek has spent time leading the league in scoring and now sits tied for 4th while Giroux is tied for 11th in league scoring.
This is the second of three meetings of the season between Ottawa and Philadelphia, with the first one tipping the Flyers way, 2-1 in a shootout early in January. The last one will be the final game for both in the regular season, and if the Senators can continue close to the pace they have been on for the last 12 games, it could be a very important matchup to close out the season, or a preparation for the playoffs. Who would have thought that was a possibility a month ago?