Silver Nuggets: Senators/Devils; Volchenkov/Phillips comparison; Anderson gets mask

The Ottawa Senators take on Ilya Kovalchuk and the New Jersey Devils tonight. The Devils are on an unbelievable run and Kovalchuk is a big reason why. He has 19 points in his last 16 games and has been very consistent, scoring a point in 15 of those 16 games. On the other hand, the Senators haven't lost two in a row in the Craig Anderson era.

Today is the last call to be stalked by me go to the Senators/Leafs game with me (and others) in April. If you are interested, email me at the address on my profile. I will issue one last rallying call during the game thread tonight.

Also, I picked up my new glasses last night. The switch to half rimless from full rim has initially made me a bit disoriented. Or it could be the new prescription. Do you care? Unlikely. But when you control the nuggets, you control information! <insert laugh>

Here are today's links:

Tonight's game

• Game preview. (NHL.com)
• Not surprisingly, everyone on the panel predicts a loss to the hottest team in the league. (Sens Extra)
• Craig Anderson is starting tonight and will be debuting his mask. (Ian Mendes, Mask - #NHL_Sens, Other side of mask)
• Colin Greening is back up with Ottawa. (Scott MacArthur)

More after the jump.

General Sens News

• The 6th Sens wonders if we are being too sentimental in wanting to draft Gabriel Landeskog. Nichols also questions why the Senators, as a playoff team, did not want to re-sign Anton Volchenkov to a contract that ends at age 34, but as a rebuilding team, signed Chris Phillips to a contract that ends at age 35. (The 6th Sens)
• Daniel Alfredsson is trying hard to come back this year. I am not sure if I like this idea, I love Alfie as much as anyone else, but I would rather not have him delay surgery and then be out at the start of next year. (Sun)
• The Senators want to finish the season strong and win some games. But do the fans want them to? (Citizen, Sun)
• Poor Peter Regin, an awful season ended with the news that he will be out 4-6 months. (Sun)
• As mentioned on Sunday, David Rundblad's Skellefteå team plays game one of their playoff series today. Puck drop is at 1:00 p.m. if anyone wants to stream it. (Hockeyligan.se)
• The following players are eligible for the AHL Playoffs for Binghamton. (Binghamton Senators)
• A look at Binghamton goalie Barry Brust and why he is loved by the Binghamton fans. (Citizen)

General Hockey News

• A great interview with Pavel Datsyuk, including his thoughts on Ryan Kesler possibly winning the Datsyuk Selke Trophy. (Yahoo!)
• Vancouver fans have a little bit of fun in California, including wrapping a Canucks jersey and a Canadian flag around a Wayne Gretzky statue. Unluckily for them, it looks like Chicago will make the playoffs after all though. (Yahoo!)