After a swing through Western Canada, the Ottawa Senators are back at home -- briefly, anyway. They'll play one game against the Nashville Predators tonight at the Canadian Tire Centre, before heading up to the Bell Centre for a HNIC affair on Saturday night.
As will be the case from now until game eighty-two, points are crucial here. Ottawa simply can't afford to lose many more games if they're hoping to reach the post-season -- any margin for error they did have (and it was small margin for error at that) was burned off by collecting zero points against Edmonton and Calgary, two of the National Hockey League's basement dwellers.
Perhaps the victory over Winnipeg on Saturday was enough to plug the holes in what seemed to be sort of a sinking ship. Ottawa rattled off five goals against Ondrej Pavelec, with Jason Spezza and Ales Hemsky going to work in their newfound relationship.
Both players, of course, are enjoying one another's company. Said Spezza after the Winnipeg win:
"He's an extremely offensively talented player. I seem like I can read off him fairly easily. I've watched him play a lot. He's really good with the puck, he's got that short stick, protects it really well and is a good passer."
They'll need more goal-scoring chemistry against the Predators, another team that looks like they'll see their season come to a close after game eighty-two. Pekka Rinne has returned from a hip injury for a Nashville team sorely in need of his goaltending prowess, but it's probably too little, too late for Barry Trotz's club. Nevertheless, he'll get the cage tonight against Ottawa.
On the Ottawa side, expect an identical lineup to the one deployed against Winnipeg -- Craig Anderson in net, Clarke MacArthur out due to injury, and Matt Kassian drawing in on the team's fourth-line. The hope is that MacArthur will be healthy enough to play on Saturday.
Puck drops at 7:30 PM ET.
NASHVILLE PROBABLE COMBINATIONS Cullen-Fisher-Spaling Nystrom-Wilson-Smith Clune-Gaustad-Stalberg Bourque-Sissons-Eaves
Josi-Weber Del Zotto-Ellis Ekholm-Jones
OTTAWA PROBABLE COMBINATIONS Hoffman-Turris-Ryan Greening-Smith-Neil Michalek-Spezza-Hemsky Kassian-Zibanejad-Condra
Karlsson-Methot Phillips-Ceci Cowen-Gryba
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