Senators prediction panel: Game 69
The Ottawa Senators return home to take on the New York Rangers. Which team will come out on top? Our prediction panel weighs in.
The Ottawa Senators return home to take on the New York Rangers. Which team will come out on top? Our prediction panel weighs in.
New York Rangers (42-16-7) at Ottawa Senators (35-25-8)
James Gordon, SenatorsExtra.com editor/Citizen hockey writer
Senators 1, Rangers 2
The Senators are playing some decent hockey lately, but we’re talking about arguably the best team in the league here. Rangers will be motivated after a terrible outing against New Jersey Tuesday.
Record: 35-33
Exact scored predicted: 1
Wayne Scanlan, Citizen columnist
Senators 1, Rangers 3
I will try the visitors here coming off a loss, knowing that neither team is particularly desperate for a win.
Record: 38-30
Exact scores predicted: 3
Ian Mendes, Sportnet.ca Senators reporter and blogger
Senators 2, Rangers 3
New York was embarrassed by the Devils on Tuesday night. Tortorella’s team rarely loses two in a row.
Record: 40-28
Exact scores predicted: 2
Graeme Nichols, writer/editor, The Sixth Sens blog and podcast, defending prediction panel champion
Senators 2, Rangers 3
Coming off a 4-1 loss to New Jersey, the quotes coming out the Rangers camp leave me believing that they’ll come out hard against the Senators. I mean, anytime a player like Brian Boyle says, “They wanted to kill us and we need to match that,” you can’t ignore it.
Record: 40-28
Exact scores predicted: 2
Steve Lloyd, host, Healthy Scratches on Team 1200
Senators 2, Rangers 4
I’ve been saying all season that I can’t believe how good the Rangers are. Their record is better than the sum of their parts. It’s time to give them some real credit. They deserve to be the best team in the east, and they’ll beat the Sens that tonight.
Record: 40-28
Exact scores predicted: 1
Peter Raaymakers, writer/editor, Silver Seven Sens blog
Senators 2, Rangers 3
I think Tuesday’s 7-3 score was pretty forgiving to the Senators, and if Tampa Bay had anyone in net besides Dwayne Roloson, the game would have been a different thing altogether. The Rangers have someone in net who isn’t Dwayne Roloson; in fact, Lundqvist is about as far removed as one can get. Alfredsson and Karlsson will likely have a bit of extra emotion in their game, but I still don’t like Ottawa’s chances.
Record: 40-28
Exact scores predicted: 3
Russell, host, SensUnderground podcast
Senators 2, Rangers 4
By now, we pretty much know what the Sens are about: Good enough to beat bottom feeders, good enough to win their share against the second tier teams but not good enough to win consistently against the elite clubs. Rangers take this one, but not easily.
Record: 42-26
Exact scores predicted: 2
Jeremy Milks, writer/editor, Black Aces blog
Senators 2, Rangers 1
Ottawa seems to get their wins in bunches and they’ve stacked up pretty well against New York so far. Bit of a coin toss but I’ll take the home side by a goal.
Record: 37-30
The Sens have stacked up pretty well against the Rangers so far this season, coming out on top twice in three attempts. The good news is that Spezza, Karlsson & Michalek have lead the charge for the Sens in the season series to date, so scoring a few shouldn’t be an issue; Ottawa doesn’t seem to have too much trouble with Lundqvist. Provided the Turris line can shut down Gaborik, this one is on Bishop to come up with the timely saves for the win. 5-4 Sens in extra time.
What changes now that Martin Biron starts?
I will be the first to admit that the Rangers are one of if not the best team in the East thus far, I mean the standings speak for themselves. What I don’t understand is that every pick seems to have forgotten, save one, that the Sens have beaten the Rangers in 2 out of 3 times this year. Add to that the fact that the Rangers seem to be looking to the Chicago game, with starting Biron tonight, thus not overly worried about the Sens. As well they’re coming off a bad loss but again seem to be looking ahead to Chicago. Plus add to that some of the best numbers for many of the Sens players this year I don’t think it a lock that the Rangers are going to win.
Every time this season when the panel’s consensus has been that the Sens will lose, I went the other way, called for a win and was right.
The last time was the Boston game.
This time, I am puzzled as to why the panel (except for one lone dissenter) sees the Sens losing. The Sens seem to have a history of doing well against Torts’ teams, I suspect in large part because Torts stuck up for Spezza when everyone else was saying lousy things about him and as a result, the Spazz seems to be motivated to prove Torts right.
Also, despite the win over the Bolts, the Sens have been playing terribly recently and I’m sure that The ‘Stache has been kicking their arses up and down the ice hoping to get them to get back into gear.
Tonight, the Sens win and it will be a Thing of Beauty.
Wha’d I tell ya ?