The greatest goal scorer who has ever lived makes an appearance in Ottawa on Thursday afternoon. The Senators will host Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals (1 p.m.) in what will likely be one of his final appearances at Canadian Tire Centre, at least in theory.
He is 40 years old, after all.
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But on New Year’s Day, there doesn’t seem to be much regard for “out with the old and in with the new.” Ovechkin has played in all 40 games this season and sits second in Capitals scoring with 34 points.
Leevi Merilainen, the Senators’ new starting goaltender for the foreseeable future, and also the man Ovechkin will be shooting on today, was still a toddler when Ovechkin was putting up 106 points in his rookie season 20 years ago.
As for the Senators, they’ll be looking to start the new year on a winning note. All of the goodwill generated by their recent four-game winning streak was undone by a three-game holiday skid against teams that were behind them in the standings.
Now, only the Columbus Blue Jackets trail Ottawa in the East, and the Senators are in danger of drifting too far away from the teams currently holding playoff positions. It seems like just five minutes ago Senators fans were chuckling at the state of the poor old Buffalo Sabres, but Buffalo has now won 10 straight games and holds the second wild-card spot, five points ahead of Ottawa.
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The Senators are also seven points back of the top three teams in the Atlantic Division. Needless to say, with so many teams ahead of them, Ottawa needs to go on a run, and soon.
Ottawa had its way with Washington back on October 25, defeating the Capitals 7–1. Drake Batherson and Dylan Cozens each recorded two goals and two assists in that game. The Senators will also be getting Washington on short rest, although that didn’t seem to matter a lick against Columbus earlier this week.
Despite playing the second half of a back-to-back and enduring brutal travel conditions, the Blue Jackets embarrassed the Senators at home, 4–1, leading to Ottawa being booed off the ice. Head coach Travis Green called it one of the worst performances of the season. With a game set for 1 pm, just 13 hours after the new year clock struck midnight, the players who indulged should be easy to spot.
Tim Stützle has 17 points during his 10 game point streak and will look to continue that momentum. Tyler Kleven returns from injury and will skate in the bottom pairing with Jordan Spence.
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The Capitals received good news on Wednesday when both Tom Wilson, their leading scorer, and goaltender Logan Thompson were named to Team Canada’s Olympic roster.
Washington is coming off a 6–3 victory over the New York Rangers on New Year’s Eve, and Wilson showed exactly why he earned that selection. With the score tied 1–1, Wilson delivered a massive hit, scored the go-ahead goal on the same shift, and on the next shift got into a fight. Wilson finished the night with two goals, the third Gordie Howe hat trick of his career, and the 200th goal of his NHL career.
It’s easy to envision Wilson and Brady Tkachuk butting heads on Thursday afternoon in Ottawa, and potentially doing it again next month in Italy.
Here are the projected lineups (subject to change) from NHL.com.
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CAPITALS (21-14-5) at SENATORS (18-15-5), 1 p.m. ET; RDS, TSN5
Capitals projected lineup
Connor McMichael — Justin Sourdif — Alex Ovechkin
Aliaksei Protas — Dylan Strome — Tom Wilson
Justin Leonard — Nic Dowd — Ethen Frank
Brandon Duhaime — Hendrix Lapierre — Anthony Beauvillier
Martin Fehervary — John Carlson
Jakob Chychrun — Matt Roy
Rasmus Sandin — Dylan McIlrath
Logan Thompson
Charlie Lindgren
Injured: Pierre-Luc Dubois (lower body)
Senators projected lineup
Brady Tkachuk — Tim Stutzle — Fabian Zetterlund
David Perron — Dylan Cozens — Drake Batherson
Michael Amadio — Shane Pinto — Claude Giroux
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Ridly Greig — Stephen Halliday — Nick Cousins
Jake Sanderson — Artem Zub
Thomas Chabot — Nick Jensen
Tyler Kleven — Jordan Spence
Leevi Merilainen
Hunter Shepard
Scratched: Kurtis MacDermid, Nikolas Matinpalo
Injured: Lars Eller (broken foot)
By Steve Warne
The Hockey News – Ottawa
