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.

'Canes vs. Sens 1/13/08

Ingredients:

1 Canes Team coming off of 2 road losses looking to prevent a three game losing streak.

1 Sens Team coming off of a five game losing streak and losing eight of their last ten.

1 GM who is close to losing his job.

And a pinch of Ottawa fans who are ready to give up and welcome John Tavares into town.

Give this wort a 60 minute boil and I'm betting you'll see some ugly hockey.

I'm not as optimistic as most Sens fans are pessimistic. I can easily see where the Canes could be on the losing edge of this match. Even though the Sens' have an amazing offense on paper, they haven't performed nearly up to expectations this year. But leave it to the Canes' luck that they will finally click while playing us.

Ex-Cane Martin Gerber has fallen a long way from his 38 wins with the Canes and is now a healthy scratch in favor of Alex Auld and AHLer Brian Elliot. It's looking to be his 3rd straight start, so look for him to finally settle into his groove.

On the 'Canes front look for Tim Gleason to make it back after reaggravating his ankle injury from earlier this season. Having his presence on the back end should help much more than Frank Kaberle(Kaberlame).

Also watch to see if Carolina can respond to being thrown around like babies against Boston. We're getting, and rightfully so, a reputation for being pussies and not playing a physical game. We'll see how our small-statured lineup fares tonight.