With a 2-1 victory over the Montreal Canadiens last night the Ottawa Senators have moved up into 2nd place and last year’s Stanley Cup Champs the Boston Bruins have move down into 7th place.
The Bruins have been struggling since they lost back-up goaltender Tuukka Rask to an injury. In their last 10 games they only have a record of 3-7-0 while the Senators are playing fine with their starting goaltender Craig Anderson. The Sens are now 5-3-2 and newly acquired goaltender Ben Bishop has performed extremely well in net for Ottawa.
Ottawa has a lot of hockey players stepping up this season and performing to the best of their ability. Daniel Alfredsson has been phenomenal in shootouts and Jason Spezza is having a great scoring season but it Erik Karlsson that is the most talked about. Karlsson leads the NHL defenseman in points. He’s an excellent playmarker that is consistant and reliable on and off the ice. He had an assist on Filip Kuba’s overtime winner last night against the Montreal Canadiens. The Senators offense dominated last night as they had 33 shots on goal. They were able to shut down the Canadiens offense completely as the Habs were only able to get 14 shots on goal.
The Senators are proving to be a dominate force in the Eastern Conference this season and this is the best hockey I have seen them play in years. With Alfredsson, Spezza and Karlsson in the line-up the sky is the limit for the Senators. Ottawa will get another chance to shine tonight when they host their Ontario rivals the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Leafs are 8 points back of the 8th place Washington Capitals and Toronto has only won 2 out of their last 10 games. The Senators have a great at home record of 19-13-4 and they will be looking to extend their lead over the Bruins tonight with a win against Toronto. Who will score the first goal tonight? Will Karlsson have another multi-point game and or Spezza lead the Senators to a victory. With the Leafs being down a few key players due to injury and now their playoff hopes have basically slipped away the Senators should have no problem coming out with a win tonight as the Leafs morale is dwindling day by day.
