The Ottawa Senators have had their alternatives.
Nevertheless, as an alternative of creeping nearer to a playoff spot up to now week, the Senators have dropped additional behind within the Jap Convention wild-card standings heading into their Saturday night time matchup towards the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Senators (33-31-4, 70 factors) have misplaced 4 in a row to place the brakes on their pursuit of the Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Islanders for the East's two wild-card spots.
Ottawa is eight factors again of these two groups, with 14 video games left for the Penguins and Senators and 12 for the Islanders.
Making the playoff run much more uphill for the Senators, the Florida Panthers, Washington Capitals and Buffalo Sabres leapfrogged them within the wild-card standings throughout Ottawa's dropping streak.
Senators captain Brady Tkachuk has 69 factors (28 objectives, 41 assists) in 68 video games this season, surpassing his profession excessive of 67 factors set final season in 79 video games. Nevertheless, he's in jeopardy of lacking the playoffs for a fifth straight season.
"It is irritating since you need to get rewarded for all of the exhausting work," Tkachuk stated after Ottawa almost erased a three-goal deficit initially of the third interval towards the visiting Colorado Avalanche on Thursday however finally misplaced 5-4.
Making the four-game skid much more ill-timed is that it prevented the Senators from capitalizing on current slides by the Penguins and Islanders.
Pittsburgh has dropped its previous two video games, falling Tuesday to the Montreal Canadiens, the last-place group within the Atlantic Division, and Thursday to the New York Rangers, however nonetheless expanded its lead over the Senators by 4 factors up to now week.
The Islanders misplaced back-to-back video games on Saturday towards the Capitals and on Tuesday versus the Los Angeles Kings, however they bounced again to beat the Anaheim Geese on Wednesday, increasing their lead over Ottawa.
"The season is on the road," Senators ahead Claude Giroux stated. "It is irritating whenever you play exhausting and the consequence shouldn't be there."
The Maple Leafs (41-18-9, 91 factors) are coming off 5-2 win towards the visiting Carolina Hurricanes on Friday night time. The consequence prolonged their result in three factors over the Tampa Bay Lightning for second place within the Atlantic Division.
Toronto ahead Zach Aston-Reese opened the scoring inside the first three minutes on Friday and added a second-period objective.
"It undoubtedly felt good," Aston-Reese stated of the early tally. "It is at all times straightforward to play the remainder of the sport whenever you rating in your first shift. They had been fairly straightforward objectives for me to place in. (Erik) Gustafsson with an excellent shot (to deflect), an excellent transfer by him too with that little shimmy on the high to get free, after which (Sam) Lafferty with an excellent saucer go.
"I hoped for the third, however I am proud of the night time."
Toronto defenseman Morgan Rielly had a objective and an help towards the Hurricanes, giving him objectives in back-to-back video games after totaling two objectives within the first 51 video games this season.
The Maple Leafs, who've used seven defensemen within the lineup the previous 4 video games, will begin Matt Murray in objective on Saturday after Ilya Samsonov made 32 saves towards the Hurricanes.
Murray, who performed for Ottawa the previous two seasons earlier than coming to Toronto in a commerce final summer season, has allowed 4 objectives in every of his three begins since getting back from a five-week absence brought on by an ankle damage.
He was set to start out towards the Senators on Jan. 27 when he was injured throughout warmups and changed by Samsonov, who gave up six objectives on 34 pictures in Ottawa's 6-2 loss.
Murray is 5-1-1 in his profession towards Ottawa with a .906 save share and a 2.73 goals-against common.
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