Under new coach Guy Boucher, the Senators enjoyed a strong season with a tighter defensive system than ever before.
The Boston Bruins are back in the playoffs for the first time in three years, and it's hard not to feel good about their path to the Stanley Cup.
The Bruins may have had a shot-less second period, but there was no shortage of excitement in Game 1 of the team's playoff series against the Ottawa Senators. The Leafs lost their final game, which means the Sens will face off against the Boston Bruins for the first time in their history. "There's been a few times yesterday that the D needed to change, they were exhausted, and we didn't do that in the second".
"He went out and wasn't feeling great so he left the ice which leads me to believe, that again he's day-to-day as well, but we're preparing to put Joe in there right now", said Cassidy. The Senators won each of its four games against them. They give their opinions on how the C's match up with the Bulls.
"It's always a concern coming into the lineup at this time of the year when you're a young guy, whether you've played or not", said Cassidy. With 15 players at his disposal, Boucher has some tough decisions to make. That fact is no more evident than in the team's plus-minus - only three players in the top-10 in scoring finished with a minus rating, including Ottawa's second-leading point scorer Mike Hoffman, who finished with a team-best plus-17 rating. I think "reluctance" is not the best choice of words. Making matters worse is Ottawa's home ice advantage, which will allow them to get the match-ups they want. D Chris Wideman played his first ever National Hockey League playoff game. Ottawa veterans Chris Kelly and Chris Neil were healthy scratches as was Ryan Dzingel. While Carlo's injury appears to be day-to-day, these two losses could have a severe impact on an already thin Bruins blue line. Goaltender Craig Anderson, who took a leave from the team while his wife battled cancer, won all four starts against Boston this season.
Derick Brassard and Kelly were acquired in the off-season, while Alex Burrows, Viktor Stalberg and Tommy Wingels all arrived prior to the trade deadline.
Tinkering Guardiola needs to find winning formula again
Chelsea responded to last Saturday's surprise home loss to Crystal Palace with a 2-1 win over Manchester City on Wednesday night. Tottenham have not won the league since 1961. "I tried to adapt to the players as much as possible".
It was somewhat surprising to see Zack Smith between Tommy Wingels and Tom Pyatt after having played most of the season on left wing. "Krug and Carlo, you can't replace guys like that, you can only go in and hope to do something that those guys bring to the table", said McAvoy.
The Bruins lost 3-1 in their first meeting on November 24 and 4-2 on March 6 - both in Ottawa. Having 63 per cent possession is going to win you an terrible lot of hockey games.
Also potentially returning to the Ottawa lineup Wednesday night is Marc Methot, who has not seen any action since having his finger obliterated by Sidney Crosby.
Had McAvoy not been able to come up quite so big, that would have put significant pressure on the rest of the Boston defense, already exhausted after playing extra minutes in the past two games.
Giving the Boston Bruins possession will be suicide for the Senators' Stanley Cup goals, keeping the Corsi For percentage in mind, and the fact that Brad Marchand is now on a hot goal-scoring streak and is the number one goal scorer since the beginning of the year.
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