Florida Panthers
Ottawa Senators Making a Playoff Push After Drought
After seven seasons of futility, the Ottawa Senators are days away from clinching a spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The Senators are closing in on the top wild-card spot which will bring a first-round matchup against the Atlantic Division winner — so, one of Toronto, Tampa Bay, or the Panthers.
It has not been an easy road.
Since their last appearance in the playoffs — the Senators lost the 2017 Eastern Conference finals in 7 to the eventual Cup champion Penguins — Ottawa has had five coaches and two general managers.
They had housecleanings which resulted in the trading of such stars as Mark Stone, Erik Karlsson, Derek Brassard, Mike Hoffman, and others.
This is Travis Green’s first season as head coach.
Name players such as Stone, Alex Debrincat, and Matt Duchene refused to re-sign with the Sens.
They lost what could have been a critical first-round draft pick due to irregularities caused by their own negligence when they traded Evgenii Dadonov to Vegas.
Only they failed to mention a no-trade clause which came to light when Vegas tried to trade Dadonov to Anaheim.
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Last season, Ottawa finished seventh in the Atlantic with 78 points. They come into tonight’s game with 86 points and seven games left.
Ottawa eked out a tough 2-1 win over Tampa Bay on Thursday, with Linus Ullmark in goal. Two games earlier they lost 1-0 in overtime to Pittsburgh with Anton Forsberg in the net.
They have young stars such as their leading point getter Tim Stützle, who has 21 goals and was a 39-goal scorer two seasons ago.
Drake Batherson has been a consistent 20+ goal scorer.
Let’s not forget captain Brady Tkachuk, who provides sandpaper, leadership and scoring.
His 29 goals lead the team. It looks as if this will be his fourth consecutive 30 or more goal season.
As any Panthers’ fan knows, any game featuring the Tkachuk brothers is a formula for mayhem.
Unfortunately, with Matthew Tkachuk on LTIR and Brady out short term after absorbing a hard hit from Pittsburgh’s Ryan Graves last week, this will not happen tonight.
This is Brady’s fourth straight 100+ PIM season. Matthew, a pacifist by comparison, has only reached that milestone twice in his career.
Former Panthers’ rental Claude Giroux has shown that he still has plenty in the tank at 37. He is still a force on the power play.
Jake Sanderson, 22, has developed into a premier two-way defenseman.
The acquisition of Ullmark in goal, via trade from Boston, has been a welcome addition.
His numbers are not quite as good as his stats had been with the Bruins, but he is playing with a team which is weaker defensively than those teams.
“They skate well. They’ve got lots of skill up front,’’ Florida coach Paul Maurice said.
“Their back end is pretty darned dynamic so they’re coming of age, this team. They drafted high for a bunch of years, then they paid the price of that development time and now you’ve got players on the back end just starting to come into their prime and some young guys up top as well.”
Maurice indicated that Sasha Barkov will not play in either game this weekend due to an upper body injury sustained in Montreal Tuesday.
Nico Sturm, who was injured in the same game, will also be out.
Both teams have something to play for tonight.
Florida wants to advance at least to second in the Atlantic Division for home-ice advantage in the opening round.
The Panthers would prefer to regain first place which would get them a first-round meeting with Ottawa, rather than Tampa Bay.
Ottawa has an outside chance of catching the slumping and shorthanded Panthers for the third place in the Atlantic Division.
Regardless of the motivating factors, with or without the Tkachuk Brothers, when these two teams get together the results will always be exciting and unpredictable.
ON DECK: GAME No. 76
FLORIDA PANTHERS at OTTAWA SENATORS
- When: Saturday, 2 p.m.
- Where: Canada Tire Center, Ottawa
- Local TV: Scripps Sports — WSFL 39 (Miami/FTL); WHDT 9 (WPB); LAFF 36.3 (SWFla)
- Streaming: Panthers+; ESPN+
- Radio: WPOW 96.5-FM2; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
- Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL App
- Last Season: Panthers won 4-0
- This Season (Tied 1-1) — At Ottawa: Senators 3, Panthers 1 (Oct 10); Saturday. At Florida: Panthers 5, Senators 1 (Feb. 8).
- All-time Regular Season Series: Ottawa leads 58-49-5, 3 ties
- Up Next for the Panthers: Sunday at Detroit Red Wings, 5:30 p.m. (TNT/tru)
