Ottawa Senators Look To Get Out Of Losing Stretch Versus Ducks

The Ottawa Senators are set to begin what is widely considered the toughest road trip of each NHL team’s season, the California road trip. They will play all three Californian teams in four nights and they will begin with the Anaheim Ducks tonight.

The Ottawa Senators appeared to get back on track versus the New York Islanders, but were put right back in the losing column by the Winnipeg Jets. Now the Ottawa Senators will have to resurrect their season on the toughest road trip of the season.

Forward

The Ottawa Senators will use 12 forwards in tonight’s game. They will be: Bobby Ryan, Derick Brassard, Mark Stone, Zack Smith, Matt Duchene, Ryan Dzingel, Mike Hoffman, Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Gabriel Dumont, Tom Pyatt, Nate Thompson, and Alex Burrows.

Defence

The Sens will use six defencemen tonight and it appears that Cody Ceci will get the scratch. This means the six defencemen will be: Ben Harpur, Erik Karlsson, Dion Phaneuf, Thomas Chabot, Johnny Oduya, and Fredrik Claesson.

Goal

After a disastrous performance against the Winnipeg Jets, Mike Condon has lost his opportunity to be the starter for the time being. Instead Craig Anderson will once again be given a chance to keep his starting job.

Next: Ottawa Senators Dominated By Winnipeg Jets 5-0

A Sense Of Urgency

As terrible as the Ottawa Senators have been lately, they haven’t played themselves out of the playoff race just yet. They still sit just five points out of third in the Atlantic with four games in hand. They still very much have control of their own destiny going forward. However, with each passing game it gets less and less likely that this is a slump and more likely that the Sens just aren’t a good team this year. They need to pull things together now because you can’t rely on a run Hamburglar-esque run every year to make the playoffs.