Silver Nuggets: Senators face elimination; Spezza and Karlsson surging; Anderson starts
Well it's been a long, sad season. But tonight the Ottawa Senators will be officially eliminated from playoff contention should they fail to win against the New York Rangers. If the Senators do win tonight, it will likely be thanks to either Jason Spezza or Erik Karlsson. Over the last 10 games, the Senators have scored 24 goals. Spezza and Karlsson have scored 8 of those 24 goals, and at least one (or both) have assisted on 9 more. Therefore, 71% (17 out of 24) of Senators goals in the last 10 games have involved Karlsson (with 11 points) or Spezza (with 12 points).
In case the Senators game doesn't interest you tonight, you can always watch Zdeno Chara beat up P.K. Subban like a rag doll, Bryan McCabe style. Or, if Chara slashes Subban in the leg, Subban just might fake it and clutch his face in pain. Also, there is the Leafs and Avalanche tonight, so we have more reasons than usual to hope for a Colorado win.
Here are today's links:
Tonight's game
- Game preview. (NHL.com, Sens Extra)
- It is a gloomy panel again with only Ian Mendes predicting a win. Over the last 5 games, there have been 2 predictions of wins, and 30 predictions of losses. (Sens Extra)
- Craig Anderson will start tonight but Milan Michalek won't be back. He might play tomorrow though. (Ian Mendes)
More after the jump.
General Sens News
- Daniel Alfredsson could join the Senators next week for the road trip to Atlanta, Tampa Bay and Florida and start skating with the team. (Ian Mendes)
- Cory Clouston points out that the players the Senators traded away (I am looking at you Mike Fisher!) actually had better numbers while playing in Ottawa. He also got a bit angry in practice. (Sun)
- It has been a wasted year of development for Robin Lehner with very few games played in either the AHL or NHL. Here is a look at his future. (Citizen)
- Curtis McElhinney wants to stay here too. He also thinks he can be a starter somewhere one day. (Citizen)
General Hockey News
- Do you want to to own the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Toronto Marlies, the Toronto Raptors or Toronto FC? Or just the arenas? Well they can be yours for the low, low price of $1,000 (from a million people). If the Senators were for sale, would you want to own a piece? (Yahoo!)
- Mark Recchi feels Les Canadiens embellished the Max Pacioretty injury to try and get Zdeno Chara suspended. (Yahoo!)