Strong Play Carries Senators into Olympic Break

Sporting a mark of 5-1 since January 25^th has the Ottawa Senators in a hopeful state, but was the run a little bit too late?

Hockey followers will need to wait for a few more weeks to see if the recent trend continues or the up-and-down season that we’re used to seeing lurches forward. Ottawa and its fan base are like a jet plane hovering over LaGuardia – situated in a holding pattern waiting to land.

The club and the rest of the league will take the next two-and-a-half to three weeks off to accommodate the Winter Olympics, which opened just days ago.

It will bring some much-required time off for all 32 teams who’ve plundered and plowed through a challenging condensed schedule. Everyone’s dealing with injuries and fatigue.

Of course, not all will be heading to Jamaica’s beaches. The bulk of the best skaters making up the various Olympic rosters have been peeled off of NHL teams and have already hopped on their own jet planes headed for Milan.

In case you missed it, Ottawa’s lads heading to Italy include Brady Tkachuk and Jake Sanderson (Team USA). Both will figure in prominently for the Americans – considered a tournament favourite. Also heading east is top skater Tim Stutzle who joins pals Moritz Seider and Leon Draisaitl on Team Germany. Pundits believe this will be the best team Germany has ever assembled.

Team Finland gets Nikolas Mantinpalo back. He was strong at the Four Nations tourney last winter.

Rounding out the six will be Lars Eller and AHLer Mads Sogaard (Team Denmark).

The NHL season starts fresh again for the Senators on Feb. 26^th as the somewhat surprising Detroit Red Wings visit. While there’s almost zero hope of flagging down the Wings in the playoff chase (Detroit holds a nine-point advantage), the game remains significant.

As with most of their 25 games remaining, the Senators are in must-win-now mode. Buffalo and Boston – fellow Atlantic Division clubbies – will hold on to the Eastern Conference’s two wild-card slots through the break. After Ottawa’s recent run, the team sits six and seven back of the Bruins and Sabres, respectively.

All three have 25 games left in the regular schedule.

That’s not the only work and concern ahead.

Ottawa also needs to consider that Columbus (under a rejuvenated Rick Bowness) and Washington enter the break on heaters. Both are two points up on Ottawa . . . and Toronto. The Leafs enter the gap coming off a three-game (unexpected the way they were going) sweep through the west.

Both Philly and Florida are nipping at the heels as well – two points in arrears of the Senators.

Schedule-wise?

Ottawa and Toronto hook up three more times after the Olympics. The Senators are done with the Bruins for the season but get to dance with the Sabres one more time. Florida and Ottawa get together on two more occasions.

So, you see what we mean when we say ‘must-win-now mode.’

In fact, every one of the varied candidates for the post-season will enter the stretch run engaged in the same ferocious, draining mind-set.

And this certainly qualifies as a ‘good thing.’

Runaway hockey (see: Colorado in the Western Conference) can present a pretty dull tale. (Is it me or is the entire west not up to its usual snuff this season?).

Meantime the east, and in particular the Atlantic, is a scrap for the dog bone each and every night. Scoreboard watching has morphed into an Olympic-sized sport of its own and it definitely does not end until the final bell rings on April 15^th (BTW, the Leafs are in Ottawa with their legion of fans that final night).

Of the 16 organizations in the east, only one has packed it in on the year – the New York Rangers. Not much is likely to change through the next two months of play.

Game on?

Bring it.

OTTAWA SENATORS WEEK(S) AHEAD:

(Olympic break begins)

Thursday, Feb. 26: Detroit at Ottawa (7 pm)

Saturday, Feb. 28: Ottawa at Toronto (7 pm)

thegrossgame@yahoo.com