Company

Ottawa Senators (17-22-7, 41pts) vs
Columbus Blue Jackets (23-20-5, 51pts)
Nationwide Arena, Columbus, OH
Friday, January 30, 2009
7:00 PM EST
FSOHIO/WWCD(fm)/WBNS(am)

(Dispatch Preview 1 Preview 2)

Columbus scored themselves a big win on Tuesday against Detroit, but it will be meaningless if they don’t come out tonight and take care of business against an inferior opponent who is on the second night of a road back-to-back. The Jackets have two home games tonight and tomorrow night against teams they should be able to beat… and that they quite frankly need to beat.

Projected Lineups
Ottawa Senators:

LW: Dany Heatley – Chris Kelly – Nick Foligno – Jarkko Ruutu
C: Jason Spezza – Antoine Vermette – Peter Regin – Dean McAmmond
RW: Daniel Alfredsson – Jesse Winchester – Mike Fisher – Chris Neil

D: Filip Kuba – Chris Phillips – Jason Smith
D: Anton Volchenkov – Brian Lee – Brendan Bell

G: Alex Auld

Columbus Blue Jackets:

LW: Rick Nash – R.J. Umberger – Fredrik Modin – Andrew Murray
C: Manny Malhotra – Jason Williams – Jason Chimera – Michael Peca
RW: Kristian Huselius – Jakub Voracek – Jared Boll – Derek Dorsett

D: Jan Hejda – Fedor Tyutin – Kris Russell
D: Mike Commodore – Marc Methot – Ole-Kristian Tollefsen

G: Steve Mason

Team Rankings
Scoring:
OTT – 2.41 gpg (30th NHL)
CBJ – 2.69 gpg (20th NHL)

Defense:
OTT – 2.83 gapg (14th NHL)
CBJ – 2.73 gapg (9th NHL)

Power Play:
OTT – 18.5% (16th NHL)
CBJ – 11.7% (30th NHL)

Penalty Kill:
OTT – 83.0% (t8th NHL)
CBJ – 79.9% (21st NHL)

Prior Matchups
No prior matchups. This is the only matchup between these two teams this season. Ottawa has not visited Columbus since the ‘06-‘07 season. Columbus won that meeting 6-2.

Game Notes
On paper, this game looks like one the Jackets should win. Ottawa has struggled since early December, going only 7-12-3 over their last 22 games, though they did win in St. Louis last night (albeit, beating St. Louis isn’t exactly a feather in your cap). The Senators have struggled all season to score, and Columbus appears to have the even-strength edge. The biggest thing for Columbus will be to maintain their discipline, and to stay out of the penalty box. Special Teams is the are where Ottawa has a decided edge on paper. It helps Columbus that Ottawa is coming off a back-to-back in this game, having played in St. Louis last night. Columbus needs not to look ahead to an important game tomorrow night against Dallas, however, and to instead take care of business at home against an inferior opponent. Ottawa is also 6-14-3 on the road this year, whereas Columbus is now 14-7-1 at Nationwide.

Despite being last in the league in scoring, the Senators do have some offensive talent, with their main line of Dany Heatley, Daniel Alfredsson, and Jason Spezza (combined 123 points: 51G, 72A). Their problem is depth, as beyond those three the next leading point man on the team is a defenseman with only one goal (and 24 A). Their next leading goal scorer behind #3-man Alfredsson’s 12 goals has only 7. So, it’s been feast or famine for the Sens on offense. They don’t feature any big-name defensemen, and their goaltending has been middle of the road at best. Columbus needs to body up that talented top line to make sure they don’t do any damage, and then try to capitalize against the other lines Ottawa has, as Columbus has more top-to-bottom scoring depth than does Ottawa.

For Columbus, Rick Nash has been on fire, scoring points in eight of the last 10 games he’s played. Over those 10 games, he has 17 points (7G, 10A) and is +11. We talked about how great he was on Tuesday against Detroit, and he really seems to have taken his role as Captain to heart. As the Jackets continue to get healthy, they need glue to hold them together until they get can back firing on all cylinders; Nash appears to have matured into that glue. He’s having his best season overall as a professional, even taking into account his 41-goal, Richard-trophy winning year of 2003-2004 at age 19. The difference now is that he has better players around him, and is getting them involved more, evidenced by his ancillary numbers: in ‘03-‘04, he had 41 goals, but only 16 assists, for 57 points in 80 games (.7125 ppg). He was also –35 that season overall (meaning his team gave up 35 more goals than it scored when he was playing… a shocking number for a 41-goal-scorer). This season, Nash has 22 goals and 24 assists in 44 games (1.045 ppg – on pace for 38G/41A/79PTS). More importantly, he’s currently a +12 on the year. The Jackets are getting better from top to bottom, but they will still need their star Captain to carry them at times like he did on Tuesday against Detroit. Nash appears ready to step up to that challenge. This game against Ottawa is one that he has to keep his team focused on, so that they don’t let up and lose at home to a lesser quality opponent.

Side game notes:

• Ottawa has a defenseman on their roster named Alexandre Picard. This is a game side-note because in a weird twist of fate, Columbus has a winger named (you guessed it) Alexandre Picard. There is no relation between the two.
• Columbus winger Raffi Torres will miss tonight’s game, due to his physical conditioning coming off of his knee injury rehab.
• Per Portzline in the Dispatch, “[Ottawa g]oalie Alex Auld is expected to play for the first time since Jan. 6. He’s 0-5-2 with an .866 save percentage since Dec. 6.” Not good times. Wait, actually, that’s good times for us!

From The Outside Looking In
Sens Army
Battle of Ontario
Black Aces
Sens at Land’s End

Next Game For The Jackets
Saturday, January 31, 2009
7:00 PM EST
Dallas Stars at Columbus Blue Jackets