Ottawa Senators at Tampa Bay Lightning: GAME 70
Time: 7:30
Location: Amalie Arena
Broadcast/Streaming: SUN, RDS2, TSN5
Opponent SBNation Site: Silver Seven Sens
Preview:
A tweet from Erik Erlendsson seems to indicate that Peter Budaj is back in the lineup, with Louis Domingue not on Amalie ice:
Andrei Vasilevskiy and Peter Budaj the two goalies on the ice this morning, not sure on Domingue yet, will have to check #TBLightning #GoBolts
— Lightning Insider (@Erik_Erlendsson) March 13, 2018
It’s reader interaction time!
This game feels destined to be a trap, because it’s after a trade deadline that the Ottawa Senators well and truly bungled (Silver Seven Sens has a pretty good article about how to fix their team over here), and because the Tampa Bay Lightning might already be looking ahead to the post-season. The team’s magic number of wins for clinching a wild card spot is something like 2 (four points), so I wouldn’t blame them. Therefore, I have one important question for all of you:
If you were GM of the Ottawa Senators, what would you do to the team this off-season?
Here are a few responses from noted SBNation writers from around the league to start the ball rolling:
- Hardev, master of daily links for Raw Charge: I would sell Duchene, Karlsson, Stone ASAP. Pageau in a year, Ryan won’t get moved, and I would try and create a new core around Chabot, Brown, White, Formenton, et al. OR re-sign Sieloff for 8 years.
- GeoFitz4, writer for Raw Charge: Quit.
- AT Fulemin, writer for Pension Plan Puppets: My serious answer is: If you can re-sign Karlsson, you do it. If you can’t, you trade him, ideally unencumbered by Ryan but that may not be up to the GM. You make a related call on Duchene. You move heaven and earth to get Mark Stone locked for term in either scenario. You pick a backup — Grubauer, or even Pickard — and you get him if you can and try him out. Make a whack of bargain bin signings, mostly so you can trade them next TDL, but not so many you’re displacing your kids for next season–Chabot, White, Brown need to play. (My non-serious answer is: lock the door to your office and drink Jim Beam until Melnyk replaces you with himself.)
- Kaitlyn, writer for Pensburgh: Fire everybody and sign Boby Ryan for 42 more years. Cut Karlsson’s hair and sell it on eBay before I’m canned.
- Matt Esteves, In-Arena Reporter for Raw Charge: Drink myself into a stupor and scream from the top of Canadian Tire Center, “I’m rich!” Then proceed to do nothing to improve my team. Then run for Prime Minister because why not?
- David Straub, writer for Pensburgh: Karlsson would want to stay here forever; why would we want to trade him?
- Eric Seeds, writer for Jacket’s Cannon: Steal Eugene Melnyk’s kidneys.
- Taylor Baird, editor of Defending Big D: Trade Karlsson for a bag of peanuts and a Slim Jim and mic drop on my way out the door to “Drop it like it’s hot”./
Comparison Chart
@loserpoints’ note:
The Senators are…not good. Especially defensively. Looking at this profile, one can understand pretty quickly why the team is likely headed for a rebuild and why their top player (Karlsson) is rumored to be considering leaving when his contract ends in the summer of 2019. This team needs personnel and system changes to be competitive.
The Lightning continue to play well and should be able to take advantage of Ottawa’s weaknesses. The Bolts have improved recently in shot generation and are getting closer to where they were earlier in the year when that was a strength. Considering how poor the Sens defense is, this game offers Tampa another chance to move those shot generation numbers further in the right direction.
Tampa Bay Lightning
Forward Lines
J.T. Miller – Steven Stamkos – Nikita Kucherov
Yanni Gourde – Brayden Point – Tyler Johnson
Alex Killorn – Anthony Cirelli – Adam Erne
Ryan Callahan – Cedric Paquette – Chris Kunitz
Cory Conacher
Defense
Victor Hedman – Anton Stralman
Mikhail Sergachev – Brayden Coburn
Ryan McDonagh – Dan Girardi
[Slater Koekkoek – Jake Dotchin – Andrej Sustr]
Goaltenders
Lineup notes
Ondrej Palat continues to wear a red no-contact jersey at #Bolts morning skate today. #OTTvsTBL
— Bryan Burns (@BBurnsNHL) March 13, 2018
Ottawa Senators
Forwards
Mike Hoffman – Matt Duchene – Ryan Dzingel
Bobby Ryan – Jean-Gabriel Pageau – Marian Gaborik
Magnus Paajarvi – Zack Smith – Tom Pyatt
Max McCormick – Sean O’Brien – Alex Burrows
Defense
Fredrik Claesson – Erik Karlsson
Ben Harpur – Cody Ceci
Mark Borowiecki – Thomas Chabot
Goaltenders
Craig Anderson (starter)
Mike Condon
Lineup notes
Lines are from their last game vs. the Cats.
