The Senators face a Capitals team that has even less room for error than they do.
Once you're inside the final month of the NHL regular season, which we are, it's generally desperation time.
Either you're facing desperate teams fighting for a playoff spot or better positioning, or you're facing an also-ran filled with players desperate to stay in the league next season.
Desperation is a fine label for the Ottawa Senators' latest biggest game of the year on Wednesday night when they face the Capitals in Washington.
The Senators' desperation is well-documented. By his own admission, GM Steve Staios says he felt like the Senators "pissed away a lot of points early on." Now they're paying for that, forced to make a late-season charge.
They're winning a lot these days, rocking an 11-2-2 mark since January 25. With the out-of-town scoreboard so consistently working against them, it may be feel like they've been sprinting on a treadmill on the standings.
But when they started this run, they were seven teams and nine points out of the playoffs. Now they're two teams and five points out, with two games in hand on both of the wild card holders, Boston and Detroit.
The Blue Jackets are wedged into the mix, too, just one point out of a wild card.
One of the teams the Senators have managed to put behind them in the standings is the Washington Capitals, who will host them on Wednesday night (7;30pm SN, TVAS).
The Capitals are not only eight points out of a playoff spot, but they have to climb over four teams to get there, one of them being the Senators. So any slim hope of a comeback will all but evaporate if they don't get two points on Wednesday.
In the face of all that desperation, Sens head coach Travis Green isn't tinkering with anything, same lineup, same starting goalie.
"Our approach isn't really changing," Green told the media. "We're gonna play a desperate team (on Wednesday night), so our desperation level needs to be high as well."
The Senators will again be without Jake Sanderson and Nick Jensen. Sanderson is expected to start skating within the week, while Jensen is out for at least six weeks with a knee injury.
For Washington, Cole Hutson, brother of Montreal defenseman Lane Hutson, will make his NHL debut. He's expected to play alongside. Matt Roy and on the second power-play unit.
The Capitals figure he's mentally and physically ready to jump right into a near must-win NHL game for the Capitals.
Hutson was chosen 36 picks after Carter Yakemchuk in the 2024 NHL Draft. Despite the Senators recently losing two defensemen to injury, Yakemchuk, the reigning AHL player of the week, remains in Belleville, still waiting to make his NHL debut.
Here are Wednesday's line combinations and pairings, as per NHL.com.
Senators projected lineup
Drake Batherson -- Tim Stutzle -- Claude Giroux
Brady Tkachuk -- Dylan Cozens -- Ridly Greig
Nick Cousins -- Shane Pinto -- Michael Amadio
Warren Foegele -- Lars Eller -- Fabian Zetterlund
Thomas Chabot -- Artem Zub
Tyler Kleven -- Jordan Spence
Dennis Gilbert -- Nikolas Matinpalo
Linus Ullmark
James Reimer
Scratched: Stephen Halliday, Kurtis MacDermid, Lassi Thomson
Injured: Jake Sanderson (upper body), Nick Jensen (lower body)
Capitals projected lineup
Anthony Beauvillier -- Dylan Strome -- Alex Ovechkin
Aleksei Protas -- Hendrix Lapierre -- Tom Wilson
Connor McMichael -- Pierre-Luc Dubois -- Ryan Leonard
Brandon Duhaime -- Justin Sourdif -- Ethen Frank
Martin Fehervary -- Rasmus Sandin
Jakub Chychrun -- Trevor van Riemsdyk
Cole Hutson -- Matt Roy
Logan Thompson
Charlie Lindgren
Scratched: David Kampf, Ivan Miroshnichenko, Timothy Liljegren, Declan Chisholm, Dylan McIlrath
Injured: None
Steve Warne
The Hockey News