[SBN Ottawa Senators blog - Silver Seven]
The Penguins kick off a short three-game road trip tonight as they head north of the border to take on the Ottawa Senators. In the last meeting between the two, the Penguins skated away with a 4-1 victory thanks to goals from Bill Guerin, Jordan Staal and Tyler Kennedy, the latter of whom actually scored two of em.
It goes without question that the recent injury report regarding Jay McKee puts the Pens in an interesting situation, as they now officially find themselves with only one of the starting six defensemen from the first day of the season (Mark Eaton). Martin Skoula, announced earlier in the year as the seventh d-man, looks as if he has his work cut out for him over (at least) the next two to four weeks.
On a positive note, Max Talbot makes his triumphant return to the ice, confirmed yesterday by the Trib-Review.
But enough about the Pens - you know what's going on here. Take the jump and check out what's going on with the Senators.
Ottawa (9-6-3) sits 10th in the East and second in the Northeast division after picking up a 3-2 win over the Leafs Tuesday night. Overall the month of November hasn't been all that bad for the Sens, as they've posted a 3-2-1 record that includes an OT and SO win. Goaltender Pascal Leclaire has developed an interesting pattern of W-L-W-L-W over his last five and with any luck the pattern continues tonight and results in an 'L' for the Sens.
But he'll definitely have help from Ottawa's firepower. On a team that consists of Daniel Alfredsson, Jason Spezza and Milan Michalek, it comes as a bit of a surprise to see Mike Fisher leading the team in goals with nine. A hot streak, or is he on pace to top his career-high of 23 set back in 2008? Fittingly Michalek isn't too far behind with eight of his own (he also scored the only Ottawa goal against Pittsburgh last month) while Alfredsson leads the team in total points with 19 (6g, 13a).
Historically the Pens haven't faired all that well on the road in Ottawa. Up until the last win on October 12, the Pens hadn't won a regulation game at Scotiabank since April 2007. A win tonight puts Pittsburgh on a three-game win streak with Atlanta and Florida left to close out the trip before returning home to host Montreal.
Can Pittsburgh get out of this one without an injury? Let's hope so. For those of you wondering how long the Pens have gone without an injury report, please direct your attention to the right sidebar beneath the Pensburgh Twitter feed on the main page. You'll find a handy little "Days since injured" counter that records the days, hours, minutes and seconds since the last injury. This was added during Monday's game against the Ducks. It has yet to record more than two days.
The puck and thread drop tonight at 7:30. Stop by and join in.