Sens battle a four-way logjam for a wild card spot, facing injuries on D and a busy out of town scoreboard.
No matter what you think of the NHL’s playoff qualification process, there’s no question it has set the table for some exciting hockey, well before the Stanley Cup Playoffs even begin.
As play resumes Saturday, the Senators are part of a four-way logjam for the final Eastern Conference wild card spot. They’re tied at 88 points with the Detroit Red Wings, Columbus Blue Jackets, and Philadelphia Flyers.
NHL.comOttawa and Detroit each have seven games remaining, while Columbus and Philadelphia have six. The Senators also hold the first tiebreaker with 33 regulation regulation wins, which is well ahead of all three teams behind them.
That means plenty of scoreboard watching this weekend, starting early on Saturday.
Red Wings at Rangers 12:30 pm
At 12:30 p.m., Sens fans will be pulling for the New York Rangers to pull off an upset at home against the Red Wings. But as the worst team in the east, six points behind even the Leafs, motivation may not be particularly high in the Big Apple.
Wild at Senators 1 pm
The Senators are also in action Saturday afternoon, hosting the Minnesota Wild at 1:00 p.m. As the Sens cling to the final wild card spot by virtue of a tiebreaker (regulations wins), their horribly banged up blue line may feature three players on Saturday who've played a combined total of 7 NHL games this season: Cam Crotty, Lassi Thomson and Jorian Donovan.
Already without Jake Sanderson, Thomas Chabot, Nick Jensen, Dennis Gilbert, and Carter Yakemchuk, the Sens have suffered another injury to their blue line, losing Tyler Kleven, who took a puck off the side of his head on Thursday in their 4-1 win over Buffalo. That forced Jordan Spence to play over 30 minutes in the game and he can probably expect more of the same on Saturday.
Sanderson is close to returning, but it's believed that Jorian Donovan will be called up Saturday morning after playing one shift for Belleville on Friday night in Rochester and leaving that game. Sanderson wore a red jersey at practice on Friday.
Jets at Blue Jackets 7 pm
The Blue Jackets will host the Winnipeg Jets at 7:00 p.m. The Jets still have a slight chance to make the playoffs in the West despite being just one game over .500. Like the Senators were, Columbus will be in a foul mood after getting worked over in their most recent game. They fell 5-1 to Carolina on Thursday.
Islanders at Hurricanes 7 pm
The New York Islanders are also very much part of this discussion. They cling to third in the Metro but the Blue Jackets and Flyers would both love to jump out of this wild card nightmare and grab third place.
After Philly beat them 4-1 on Friday, the Islanders sit just one point ahead of the wild card pack but with only five games lefts, they've played two games more than the Sens and Wings. The Isles will have their hands full Saturday night, visiting the Carolina Hurricanes, who have already clinched a playoff spot but are still pushing to lock down top spot in the East.
The Flyers are idle on Saturday but will host Boston on Sunday.
The Wild and Hurricanes can both heavily influence the race this weekend. After facing the Sens, the Wild get Detroit on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Carolina has a nasty turnaround, playing the Islanders on Saturday night, then hustling up to Ottawa to face the Sens at 5 on Sunday. It will be interesting to see if Linus Ullmark is available in a back to back situation.
Buckle up. It's going to be a bumpy ride.
Steve Warne
The Hockey News
This article was first published at The Hockey News Ottawa. Check out more great Sens features from The Hockey News at the links below: