Silver Nuggets: Elliott starts, Cheechoo hits 500

It's gamenight for your Ottawa Senators. Headlines:

• Brian Elliott is reportedly to start tonight's game against the Calgary Flames. (Twitter)
• Ottawa could take over the lead in the Northeast with a win tonight and a Buffalo Sabres loss. (CBC)
• Jonathan Cheechoo's playing in his 500th NHL game tonight. It's been... well... an awful season for him, but he's still hopeful he can turn it around. So are the rest of us. (Sun)
• Allen Panzeri is predicting the Senators will only need 24 points over their 23 final games to get into the playoffs. I say the Sens err on the side of caution and go for 46 points, 'kay? (Citizen)

• Ryan Shannon is kind of a big deal in his hometown of Darien, Connecticut: He won the Senators' fastest skater competition, and it appears to have made the front page. (Darien Times)
• In the span of 46 seconds against Rochester on Saturday, the B-Sens lost Denis Hamel to injury, gave up the first goal of the game, and then lost Jeremy Yablonski as he got KO'ed. Very little went well on Saturday, for either Senators team. (Sharp)
• Sens prospect Kaspars Daugavins will probably leave pretty soon to play for Latvia at the Olympics, and his two-week absence will likely keep him out of the B-Sens lineup for nine games. The team's sixth-leading scorer will likely be missed, and maybe one of the Murrays should deal for some support for Bingo. (Sharp)
• The Sens published their prospect report, and I realized something: We've got a lot of punishing defencemen in the system. Ben Blood: "Leads team in penalty minutes"; Mark Borowiecki: "Second on team in penalty minutes"; Eric Gryba: "Leads team in penalty minutes"; Michael Sdao: "Leads team in penalty minutes". (Sens)
• We've also got a pretty good goalie in the system: Robin Lehner stopped 49 of 50 shots Sunday afternoon to lead Sault Ste. Marie to a 4-1 win over Brampton on Sunday. (CP)