The Ottawa Senators were on the road for the past two games and the team earned important two important wins against the Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs.
As the team returns to Ottawa to host the Philadelphia Flyers, tonight's game will have add more intensity to it with not only Claude Giroux playing against the team he used to be the captain of for 10 years, but also due to the Flyers being two points behind the Senators in the Eastern Conference standings.
Senators return home to host Flyers
The Senators host the Flyers at Canadian Tire Centre with puck drop scheduled for 7 p.m. ET. The Senators won the season series against the Flyers last season 2-1-0. In both of their wins against the Flyers, the Senators scored five goals in each game.
Spirits are high in Ottawa after not only defeating Boston in overtime this past Saturday, but having an impressive 3-0 shutout win in Toronto in the following game two nights ago has given Ottawa more confidence.
The Senators were playing poor on the road with having a 1-5-0 record on the road prior to the two-game road trip. With earning back-to-back wins against teams in the Atlantic Division, the Senators have shown that they can compete with some of the best teams in the NHL. Linus Ullmark had his best game as a Senator with recording a 27-save shutout against the Maple Leafs. Josh Norris, Tim Stutzle and Michael Amadio each remained hot in the win in Toronto as well by scoring the goals for the Senators.
As for the Flyers, their past three games have been decided by a shootout, with the Flyers winning two of the three shootouts. The Flyers won their last game on Monday night 4-3 against the San Jose Sharks at home to improve to 6-8-2.
Travis Konecny leads the Flyers in goals with eight, assists with nine and points with 17. Other than rookie Matvei Mitchkov's 12 points, no other Flyer has 10 points or more on the team. Six Flyers have a -10 rating or worse this season.
Although the Senators have eight wins and Ullmark has won two consecutive starts for the first time this season, the team has yet to win three consecutive games this season. With the Flyers right behind the Senators in the standings, a win tonight would give the Senators more confidence and help them gain more ground on the Flyers.