Ottawa’s senators can take another step to end a long playoff dürre if you organize the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday in the final of a home state with four games.
The senators have climbed their first playoff spot since 2017 after triggering a visit to Florida Panthers 3-0 on Saturday afternoon.
Those who are present in the Canadian Tire Center also explained their wishes and sang “We Want Playoffs” throughout the game.
“I’ve never seen the sums,” said the Senators, Drake Batherson. “It creates momentum for our group.”
Ottawa (41-29-6, 88 points) won two games in a row and restricted the opposition to a combined gate. The senators are only four points behind the fighting Panther for third place in the Atlantic Department, but keep the first game card position in the Eastern Conference.
The senators have to get ahead without being a goal scorer and team captain Brady Tkachuk. He missed the last three games with an upper body injury after scoring a goal last Sunday with a 1-0 defeat by Ryan Graves from the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Linus Ullmark is expected to start in the goal on Sunday after Anton Forsberg scored 40 parades on Saturday.
On March 29, Ullmark scored 28 parades in a 3-2 win against Columbus.
“We have a group – I’ve said it since I had the job – that really wants to win,” said Ottawa coach Travis Green. “Everyone says they want to win, but they have to commit themselves to make changes to win. We have people who have shown that they are exactly that.”
The blue jackets have scored a goal in the last two games.
You handed over the last five goals in a 7: 3 defeat against the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday and the only five goals in a 5-0 setback against Toronto Maple Leaf on Saturday.
Columbus reseted the latest defeat by six points from the Montreal Canadiens for the last Wildcard Square in Eastern Conference. The blue jackets still have seven games left while the Canadiens have six.
The defender of Columbus, Erik Gudbranson, said that there is no tension building in the changing room.
“We are the same team when things went well, we are the same team now,” he said. “This is a great group of boys, a lot of character in this room, and we work on a goal and sometimes they have disagreements, but we all love each other here. It is no different.”
Columbus (34-32-9, 77 points) had a good start in the last two games in the last two games before relaxing the route.
“We have to find out how we will transform it in a positive direction as a negative direction,” said Dean Evason, coach of Blue Jackets. “We concentrate on our start (Sunday) night and hopefully we’ll go in the right direction and not (Saturday) night.”
Evason said it is up to the players and coaches not to be discouraged if they are not rewarded for a good start.
“We just have to stay with it,” he said. “We have written down our management group all year round. We believe that they will do it again.”
-Media on the Level field
