The Bruins will look to win their 50th game of the season and move closer to clinching the top seed in the Eastern Conference tonight when the host the Ottawa Senators. The B's will try to extend their winning streak to 5 games, while the Senators will look to play spoiler after being eliminated from playoff contention earlier this week.
Just who are these Senators you speak of?
Ottawa Senators 33-33-10 (76 pts); 5th in Northeast, 12th in East
Leading Goal Scorers
Goaltending
Guys Who Like to Drop the Gloves
Chris Neil: 14 Fighting Majors, 140 PIMs
Jarkko Ruutu: 4 Fighting Majors, 132 PIMs
'08-'09 Season Series
Bruins record vs. Ottawa 4-0-0
10/18 @ OTT 4-2 W
1/8 vs. OTT 6-4 W
2/5 @ OTT 4-3 SO W
3/12 vs. OTT 5-3 W
Injury Report:
Boston
LW Marco Sturm: Out for Season (knee)
F Phil Kessel: Out (undisclosed injury)
LW Shawn Thornton: Doubtful (undisclosed injury)
Projected Lines:
| Ottawa | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Forwards | |||
| Dany Heatley | Jason Spezza | Daniel Alfredsson | |
| Nick Foligno | Mike Fisher | Ryan Shannon | |
| Chris Kelly | Mike Comrie | Chris Neil | |
| Jarkko Ruutu | Jesse Winchester | Shean Donovan | |
| Defensemen | |||
| Chris Phillips | Anton Volchenkov | ||
| Brendan Bell | Filip Kuba | ||
| Chris Campoli | Christoph Schubert | ||
| Goalies | |||
| Brian Elliott | |||
| Alex Auld | |||
*Ottawa lines from NESN.com
Notes:
- I would expect Tim Thomas to be the starting puckstopper for the B's tonight.
- Ottawa is 10-4-0 in their last 14 games
- With a win or an overtime loss tonight, the Bruins will eliminate the New Jersey Devils from contending for the top spot in the conference.
- Phil Kessel will not play tonight (undisclosed injury). Shawn Thornton is also expected to miss tonight's game.
- The Senators have the highest winning percentage in the league when leading after the first period (.875).
- Game starts at 7:00. The open thread starts here at 6:00.
- For more on the Sens, check out Silver Seven
Today's Obligatory Embarrassing YouTube Fan Video
I'm not sure what is funnier about this video: the fact that Anton Volchenkov has trouble pronouncing his own name or the tool in the Broncos t-shirt who yells "and I'm ballin' like Comrie, baby!"?