Winners of five of their last six games, the Ottawa Senators will look to stay hot in Washington on Wednesday night, when they meet Alex Ovechkin’s Capitals for the third and final time this season.
Entering play on Wednesday night, the Senators sit five points out of a wild card spot, holding two games in hand on both the Boston Bruins and Detroit Red Wings, who occupy the two positions.
“Fun opportunity for us to try to make [up] some ground,” said Lars Eller after morning skate, returning to the city where he won a Stanley Cup and played eight seasons.
“We’re going to play a team that’s in that race too, so they’re going to be hungry, and we’ll have to match that and be excited about that opportunity. Back-to-back, it’s just lots of games, that’s what you want as a player, the more the better.”
“I think just the same mentality that we had the past two games,” said Jordan Spence. “I think we’re playing really well so far, and we’ve just got to keep the momentum going, especially with another back-to-back, it’s crucial to have a good game today to kind of carry onto next game.”
Spence (22:55 TOI against Anaheim on Saturday) and Thomas Chabot (28:32 TOI against Montreal last Wednesday) have both set season-high marks for ice time in the absence of the injured Jake Sanderson.
“Obviously losing a guy like Sandy is tough, he logs in a lot of minutes, and he’s a special player,” said Spence.
“Not just for myself, but I think us as a D-corps, we all have to step up, and it’s not doing any fancy plays, I think we just have to keep playing our game and keeping it simple, and I think that’s why we’ve been successful as a group. I think we all have the same mentality and the same goal, so we just have to keep that going.”
Travis Green will start Linus Ullmark in goal for the fourth straight game. Ullmark is 7-5-2 with a .900 save percentage and 2.78 goals-against average against the Capitals in his career.
