Injuries mount for the Senators as they host the Buffalo Sabres, who can punch their first playoff ticket in 15 years.
If you were glancing at the Senators' schedule in early December, you might have looked ahead to Ottawa's April 2 home game against the Buffalo Sabres as a highly winnable matchup in the final battles for playoff positioning.
At the time, the Sabres were dead last in the East with a record of 11-14-4, nicely on track to miss the playoffs for an NHL record 15th straight season. But since then, they've pulled off one of the greatest in-season turnarounds in NHL history.
Since Dec. 8, they've gone 35-7-4; they lead the Atlantic Division with 100 points, and with a win on Thursday night against a banged-up Senators team, they will clinch their first playoff spot since 2011.
As the Senators open a five-game homestand that will make or break their season, they're in a three-way tie with Detroit and Philadelphia, and all of them are two points behind Columbus (WC2) with a game in hand. With just eight games left in the season, any loss now will probably be hard to come back from.
The Sens have an outrageous number of defencemen on the injury list, including their best two, Jake Sanderson and Thomas Chabot.
It was hoped that Carter Yakemchuk, their top prospect, might be able to pick up some of that slack after he was called up earlier than the team wanted. But he suffered an apparent concussion on Tuesday in Florida, so he's out as well, along with Nick Jensen and Dennis Gilbert.
Ottawa native Cam Crotty was called up on Thursday morning to replace Yakemchuk and make his Senators debut. The 26-year-old brings some good size at 6-foot-3, 212 pounds, but he's only played two NHL games in his career, one with Arizona and one with Minnesota. He has 10 points in 49 games with Belleville this season.
The Senators are also dealing with more team drama at the worst possible time. Linus Ullmark was shelled for five goals in the first period on Tuesday night. In the Senators' previous game in Tampa, where James Reimer was a surprise starter, head coach Travis Green publicly announced that the reason Ullmark wasn't available to start was that he needed rest.
Ullmark will start on Thursday, which is Pride Night at Canadian Tire Centre. Had they gone with Reimer, and there's certainly a decent argument that he should be the starter, it might have made things a little awkward. Three years ago in San Jose, Reimer was criticized for skipping warmups and not wearing a special jersey to commemorate the Sharks' Pride Night.
Based on the morning skate combos, Fabian Zetterlund, who started the Florida game on the fourth line, will skate on the top line with Tim Stützle and Drake Batherson.
Zetterlund has taken the spot of Claude Giroux as Travis Green tries to get both players going. Giroux is on a five-game pointless drought, while Zetterlund's is at six. Giroux moves down to the third line and bumps Nick Cousins to the fourth, even though Cousins had more points in March than either Giroux or Zetterlund.
Senators Projected Lineup
Zetterlund-Stützle-Batherson
Tkachuk-Cozens-Greig
Giroux-Pinto-Amadio
Foegele-Eller-Cousins
Kleven-Zub
Matinpalo-Spence
Thomson-Crotty
Ullmark
Reimer
For Buffalo, the popular Josh Norris returns in enemy colours. Norris had two assists in the win over the Islanders on Tuesday, ending a cold spell that saw him record just two points in his previous 11 games.
Sabres projected lineup
Krebs-Thompson-Tuch
Zucker-McLeod-Quinn
Benson-Norris-Doan
Greenway-Dunne-Malenstyn
Samuelsson-Dahlin
Byram-Power
Stanley-Metsa
Luukkonen
Lyon
Game time is 7 p.m. (RDS2, TSN5)
Steve Warne
The Hockey News