The Ottawa Senators increased their playoff chances by 9.9 per cent with last night's terrific 6-2 win over the Florida Panthers, bringing them up to a 72.6 per cent chance of making the post-season. Goes to show what 3-0-1 record in four games will do for a team's playoff odds when we're down to the back-end of the schedule.

Ottawa has now built up a respectable lead on their biggest competition, as they're four points up on the Toronto Maple Leafs, seven up on the Washington Capitals, and three up on the Florida Panthers, but they're still vulnerable: Toronto has two games in had, while Washington and Florida each have four. Suffice to say that there will be a lot of scoreboard-watching and spoiler-cheering in Ottawa over the course of the next couple of weeks.

Links after the jump.

Senators headlines:

• Recaps from last night: Silver Seven, Litter Box Cats, Sun, Citizen, Sacramento Bee (WTF?), SB Nation
• Bobby Butler recently proposed to his girlfriend. D'awwwww... (Sun)
• Also, Butler's been kicking ass since returning to the lineup. (Citizen)
• Random stories about Daniel Alfredsson and Kevin Dineen. (Sun)
• The remarkable return of Patrick Wiercioch has inspired his team. (Press & Sun Bulletin)

Other headlines:

• A list of potential trade deadline day targets for the Pittsburgh Penguins doubles as a potential list for the Senators. Here's five forwards who might be on the move. (Pensburgh)
• Also, it looks like the Tampa Bay Lightning are prepared to move defenceman Pavel Kubina. (Raw Charge)

And here's Jim O`Brien's first NHL goal: