can ottawa senators end their skid against rival montreal canadiens?
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the ottawa senators have to get up off the mat on one of the national hockey league’s biggest stages.
coming off a disgraceful 6-1 loss to the dallas stars on sunday, the senators spent monday travelling to montreal to prepare to face the arch-rival canadiens on tuesday night at the bell centre.
the senators came apart at the seams against one of the nhl’s best teams and, with a 3-3-0 record on this seven-game trip, the club needs a victory over the habs to close it out above .500.
sunday’s loss wasn’t the way the senators wanted to close out the best november the organization has had in five years.
this game might be exactly what the senators need to halt a two-game losing streak that started with a 4-3 loss to the st. louis blues on friday, as the club now sits outside a playoff spot.
the opportunity is there for the senators to right the ship.
games between the senators and habs are emotional, toe-to-toe physical battles that normally bring out the best in both teams. captain brady tkachuk, who is back from thumb surgery, and top centre tim stutzle both have earned villain status with the montreal fanbase.
the senators and habs are two up-and-coming teams in the atlantic division. both clubs have gone through lengthy and difficult rebuilds, but were able to get back to the playoffs last spring.
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they seem to bring out the best in each other, which is why so many of these games are hard-fought battles. the clubs haven’t met in the playoffs since 2015, but it’s still a strong rivalry and the bad blood has built up over the years.
it will be interesting to see what changes, if any, coach travis green makes against the habs. given the history between these two teams, one or both of the club’s rugged wingers — kurtis macdermid and hayden hodgson — will return to the lineup.
this is a game on the schedule where one of them has to play or there is no point in having them on the roster. macdermid has only played eight of the club’s 25 games this season while hodgson was called up from the club’s american hockey league affiliate in belleville two weeks ago.
you can’t allow guys like habs defenceman arber xhekaj and his brother, florian, a forward, running around without someone to hold them accountable.
that job shouldn’t fall on tkachuk’s shoulders because he’s still recovering from the torn ligament in his thumb and probably should avoid fighting for the next little while.
the club also has the option of dressing defenceman dennis gilbert — who was called up from belleville on saturday — if they want a little more size on the back end, especially with thomas chabot out indefinitely.
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no matter what happens in the alley against the habs, the senators need to make sure they focus on doing what it takes to win. they just haven’t been good enough for 60 minutes in the past two games.
the power play, which miraculously still is ranked no. 11 in the nhl, closed out the month of november at 12.1%. ottawa went 4-for-30 with the man advantage and that’s just not good enough.
the power play was so bad against the stars, with a 0-for-3 performance, that jake sanderson noted it worked against the senators.
“i honestly thought our power play kind of drained some of our game, not sharp, not crisp, you never know if we get one on the power play we get a little momentum and the game changes,” sanderson said.
“that’s on us for sure.”
the club’s penalty killing was ranked 23rd last month at 77.8%, which is an improvement and needs to be viewed as a positive, but special teams still need to be better overall.
then, there is the goaltending of linus ullmark. he made his 300th career start in dallas and surrendered six goals on 26 shots. he has given up 60 goals in 19 games this season — the most in the league.
ullmark has a 9-6-4 record with a 3.10 goals-against average and a .874 save percentage. he was much better in the month of november than the way he started the season and it does appear his game has taken a step in the right direction.
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the expectation is that after getting friday off in st. louis that ullmark will suit up to close out this trip. the loss in dallas wasn’t on ullmark, but even he’d tell his apologists that he could have been better.
the habs will start samuel montembeault in goal.
this will be a big night for winger david perron, who grew up in sherbrooke and will suit up in his home province for his 1,200th career game.
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