Coming off of their most complete and consistent effort of the season on Tuesday in St. Louis, the Ottawa Senators have had a couple of days off to bask in the sun as they start their second and final swing through Florida this weekend. First up in the back-to-back is the Panthers, who the Sens will square off with Friday night.
The Panthers come into this game trailing the Senators by 2 points with a game in hand, so this is yet another proverbial 4 pointer that the Sens would be wise to win. Putting 4 points between them and a team below them in the standings at this point in the season isn't life or death, but it would put a foot in the face of a team trying to climb over them. Oh yeah, it would also put more heat on the Leafs and Bruins, the two teams that currently occupy the Wild Card spots in the Eastern Conference.
The Panthers will be without goalie Roberto Luongo, who was injured in the Panthers 1-0 win over the Hurricanes on Wednesday, so the Senators will face yet another backup goalie in Al Montoya. Don't sleep on Montoya though, as he has posted some nice games against the Senators, most notably the 1-0 shutout win as a member of the Winnipeg Jets on Hockey Day In Canada a couple of seasons ago. He is also 1-1-1 in 6 appearances this season with a 1.98 GAA and .926 SP with FLA this season.
Ottawa beat the Panthers 1-0 in October, also in Florida, a game where Craig Anderson made 30 stops for his first shutout of the season. The Ex-Panther will get the start once again, and he has absolutely owned his former team, with an 11-2-1 record in 15 career games, adding 3 shutouts.
Erik Condra, who might have had his best game as a Senator in St. Louis, will stay in the lineup but fellow press box castaway Colin Greening will not have the same fate. He will return to the healthy scratch list as Milan Michalek will get back in from his one game "message". Mika Zibanejad will sit for the second straight game as his message continues. Hopefully the off-time and watching from above does the same trick for Mika as it did for Jared Cowen earlier in the season.
Florida has been one of those sneaky teams so far this season, because they have always been behind in the GP category so they haven't really stood out. Make no mistake though, they have been playing just as tough as the Senators, and both teams have 4-4-2 records in their past 10 games. The Panthers have more "loser points" than any team in the East, so they hang around in most of their games and at least try to get something from each game. They have a little bit of "Pesky" in them as well, and they rely heavily on goaltending because they don't score much.
This is one time the Senators wouldn't mind playing in a special teams battle, because their power play is significantly better (20% vs 15.2%) while their penalty kill also has a distinct edge (82.3-79.5%).
This game features two former teammates on Canada's 2014 World Junior team, both of whom are eligible to play again this year. Aaron Ekblad was the first overall pick last summer, and he is third on the Panthers in scoring with 11 points in 20 games, and will not likely get the chance to help Canada bring home gold because he is firmly entrenched in the Panthers' top 4 blueliners. Although Curtis Lazar is still searching for that elusive first NHL goal, the door is open for him to be a leader for Team Canada if he so wishes, which is good on the Senators to allow him that opportunity. As I said yesterday, I wouldn't give him the option, I would go ahead and send him to the tournament, but it certainly isn't my decision to make.
Puck drop is shortly after 7:30 on TSN5.