Ottawa Senators face New Jersey Devils at home ice - NHL Preview
Ottawa Senators will welcome the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday, March 20, 2012, at the Scotiabank Place as they look to bounce back from their latest defeat.
The Senators still have a good shot at ending the season second in the Eastern Conference as they trail Northeast division rivals Boston Bruins by just three points.
Recent form though has not been good for the Senators who have won just three out of their last eight games.
Ottawa are currently seventh in the Eastern Conference with 84-points.
The New Jersey Devils on the other hand are on a two-game skid after losing to Atlantic division rivals Pittsburgh Penguins and the New York Rangers.
The Devils are sixth in the Eastern Conference with 87-points and will be looking to get back to winning ways against a struggling Senators side.
Senators (37-26-10, 84 pts)
Ottawa have failed to perform at their level best this month and have struggled to keep opponents from scoring goals.
The Senators problems in defence were evident in their last game a 3-1 defeat to rivals Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday.
The Leafs were up 3-0 in the third period as Ottawa’s defence completely crumbled and the team had just one goal through Colin Greening in the final two minutes of regulation time to show for their effort.
Defenseman Erik Karlsson blamed tiredness as the main reason for the Senators slump after the game.
"We're at that part of the season where everybody's a little bit tired. We had a tough game yesterday and we didn't really reach our top level, either, and it's something we're going to have to work on if we want to continue to be successful."
Devils (41-27-5, 87 pts)
New Jersey Devils are on a tough run of games lately and have one of the toughest runs in the final half of the season.
The Devils are currently on a two-game skid after big defeats to the Rangers and Penguins.
Against New York, the Devils were completely outplayed at the Madison Square Garden as the Rangers put four goals past goaltender Martin Brodeur.
Forward Patrick Elias was visibly disappointed with the early advantage New York gained in the game and said.
"Sometimes, yeah, it's great to see that and emotions are high, but you have to kind of take a deep breath and a step back and play the way you want to play,"
Predictions
Tough to predict a winner with both the Devils and Senators equal on paper.
Sum of goals will be less than six.
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