The B’s have handled their immediate threats from Florida, and now must face one from Canada.
Just the Facts
- The Time: 3pm EST
- The Place: Canadian Tire Center, Kanata, Ontario
- Place to Watch: NESN, CBC, SportsNet, TVAS
- Place to Listen: 98.5 The Sports Hub
- An Opposing Viewpoint: Silver Seven
Know Your Enemy
- The Senators are 22-18-4 on the year; good for 48 points in the standings, and 5th in the Atlantic Division.
- Tim Stutzle leads the Senators in points, with 43 in 44 games.
- Ottawa’s top six in general is kind of impressive with how much they’ve supported each other; Drake Batherson, Adam Gaudette, Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stutzle, and Josh Norris all have at least 14 goals. Tkachuk however leads the charge with 18 goals on the year in 44 games.
- No Linus Ullmark reunion, I’m afraid. He’s been day-to-day for a while now, and Leevi Merilainen has stepped in to fill the void. He’s got a .930 SV% in 8 games started.
Game Preview
Welcome back! I hope you’ve enjoyed yourself over the 3-day break in games.
Ottawa had plenty of opportunity over the last two weeks to drop Boston out of the wild card entirely, but has been the host to a number of gruesome losses that they’ve only recently started to pull themselves out from under.
Of course, that only means that this game is a pretty important matchup, as the Sens have bumbled their way to being exactly one point behind Boston.
The Sens of course have benefited immensely from Boston’s decision to move on from Linus Ullmark, but to the eternal chagrin of the rest of the league, it does seem like they’ve managed to figure out how to make their top six a genuine threat most nights. Stutzle might be putting on a little bit of a show to get calls, but it’s paying off in an 11th in league power play. Brady Tkachuk might be a bit of a prick, but he’s a prick who can score goals. Meanwhile Josh Norris and Drake Batherson and Adam Gaudette have been exceptionally strong players that have given them a strong foundation to potentially make the playoffs if they keep up the good parts of their game. No small feat given how beaten to hell their roster is at the moment. Of course, now with Chabot out and Ullmark on the mend, their defense is rough, and their bottom 6 is a pretty sharp drop off in effectiveness from the guys playing 13 to 20 minutes a night. That’s been as big a part as any of their inability to pull ahead of Boston; they simply can’t summon the horses to score if their top 6 isn’t feeling it.
That said…I really wouldn’t be calling this an easy win just yet.
Ottawa Netminder Leevi Merilainen has only played eight games for Ottawa so far, but he has been exemplary in all but one of them, and given that he just held the Caps to a single goal through 63 minutes, I would imagine he’s suiting up tonight as well to try and get another good effort in for the Black and Red. Boston needs to solve this kid and fast if they want to overcome the Sens, and keep their top 6 as limited as they possibly can. If they can do those two things, there’s a win for them in here.
Should be a good game either way! We’ll see you at the Gamethread!