Game 77: Ottawa Senators @ Winnipeg Jets
The Ottawa Senators will visit the land of no parks when they play the Winnipeg Hockey Jets. The Jets are down to their last breath in terms of the playoff race, sitting six points behind Washington and Buffalo, although the Jets have a game in hand. Winnipeg is likely already out, but a win tonight by Ottawa would pretty much put eliminate the Jets from catching the Sens. Should the Senators prevail in regulation tonight, they'll have a 10-point lead over the Jets with Winnipeg having six games left. So then, a win and Ottawa has just one more team left to eliminate before they clinch a playoff spot.
Here are the lines for your Ottawa Senators courtesy of Sylvain St-Laurent.
Colin Greening - Jason Spezza - Milan Michalek
Nick Foligno - Kyle Turris - Daniel Alfredsson
Kaspars Daugavins - Zack Smith - Erik Condra
Rob Klinkhammer - Jim O'Brien - Chris Neil
Filip Kuba - Erik Karlsson
Jared Cowen - Sergei Gonchar
Chris Phillips - Matt Carkner
Craig Anderson (starter)
Alex Auld (sudoku, he's up to "hard" now thanks to time in the press box)
More after the jump.
Here are some other things to discuss for tonight:
- Huge game before break: Ottawa doesn't play again until Saturday. It's their third game in four nights, but whatever energy they have left they should put it all into a win tonight.
- Another offensive explosion: The Sens scored more goals on Saturday than they combined for in the five games preceding Saturday. The last time the two clubs met in Winnipeg, Ottawa won 6-4. Another high scoring game perhaps?
- Better defensive effort: Ottawa allowed four goals and 40 shots against Pittsburgh. Jared Cowen was especially bad, but thankfully Winnipeg is a bit less skilled than the Penguins.
- Break out game for Karlsson: Karlsson ended a run of three consecutive games without a point with a late assist on a beautiful pass to Colin Greening. Can he start dominating tonight? A better set of sticks will help.
- 8:30 p.m. start: Tonight is the last game outside the eastern time zone for Ottawa. Until they play a western conference team in the Stanley Cup final that is. BOOM!/
