Ottawa vs. Canes 3-25

Look out! Who are these two teams playing in Raleigh tonight? Just two of the hottest teams in the NHL right now.

Malts:

The Canes find themselves as the 5 seed in the Eastern Conference with 87 points. What a difference a week can make. For most of this season the Canes have looked like a bubble team. No one was sure if they would even make the playoffs, if they did, an eighth seed at best. But, March happened. The Canes are 7-1-2 in their last 10 and have won 8 straight at home. March Madness indeed.

Meanwhile, the Senators have had an off year until lately. They're still very far out of the playoff race, but are making a great push here, as of late. They've won 5 straight, and are 9-1-0 in the past ten. They'll pretty much have to match that record again in order to make the playoffs.

Hops:

Crap, who isn't hot for these two teams?

Carolina: Cam Ward has been playing phenomenally lately. He's been playing Brodeur-esque minutes, and putting up pretty decent numbers lately. There's been many less "Ward Shutouts" lately (1 softy a game). Staal has 16 points in the last 10 games, Brindy even has 6 points in 4 games, and even the defense is chipping in.

Ottawa: Still just about everyone. Alfredsson has 7 in the past 4 games, Spezza with 9 in the past 6, and defenseman Brendan Bell has 6 in the last 4 games.

Trub:

Carolina: Eh, I guess Scott Walker since he can't seem to get over his concussion symptoms. He's only been able to play 1 game in the past 2 months or so.

Ottawa: Chris Kelly hasn't put up a point in 6 games. Like I've said before, we're good a breaking bad streaks.


So with all of this, something's gotta give. Will it be Carolina's 4 game winning streak? How about the Sens' 5 game winning streak? Or perhaps the Canes' 8 game home-winning streak? We find out tonight.

I haven't really been able to watch the Canes lately due to the Toronto trip (pics to come!) but based on my gut feeling, I'll go with a Canes win 4-1 to keep on rolling.