{"id":556000,"date":"2026-03-23T20:33:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T20:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/556000\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T20:33:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T20:33:12","slug":"ottawa-senators-at-new-york-rangers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/556000\/","title":{"rendered":"Ottawa Senators at New York Rangers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It seems the Sens have been in survival mode since January, but this week \u2013 and especially the next 2 games \u2013 will truly determine how realistic a chance we have.<\/p>\n<p>The Sens have won 7 out of their last 10 games, but have seen little progress in the standings thanks to an out-of-town record that has consistently produced awful scenarios. That being said, some results this past weekend mean that the Sens control their own fate against the teams they&#8217;re facing in their division or in the wild card hunt thanks to a combination of games-in-hand or holding the tiebreaker advantage from regulation wins. They find themselves out of a wildcard spot by 4 points with 2 games in hand on the New York Islanders. Their playoff odds sit at a not-ideal-but-hopeful 54.6%. Win, and you&#8217;re in. Simple as that!<\/p>\n<p>The New York Rangers sit last in the conference, and are coming off 4 straight losses, including one last night. Tonight, ex-Sens centre Mika Zibanejad will become just the second player in his draft class to play 1000 games. Zibanejad has battled injuries for a chunk of his career, so it&#8217;s quite cool that the game lined up that his 1000th will feature the only two teams he&#8217;s known. While on paper, this is a very winnable game, the Sens are also under a lot of pressure, and after an exciting win against the Leafs and an all-important game against the Red Wings tomorrow, let&#8217;s hope they are mentally prepared to lock it in tonight. <\/p>\n<p>Head-to-Head Stats<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/HEEMv0raEAAOV46.jpg\" class=\"kg-image\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1080\" height=\"1350\"  \/>Projected Lineup<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/HEG0YKgaQAA-RCm.jpg\" class=\"kg-image\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1080\" height=\"1350\"  \/>Game NotesWith Dennis Gilbert out with an injury sustained against the Leafs, Lassi Thomson will get his chance to shine. I&#8217;m excited to see how he does in such a high-pressure situation. He has some experience playing on his off-side back in Europe. James Reimer gets the start tonight, which makes sense considering the importance of tomorrow&#8217;s game and the calibre of the Rangers. That being said, the Sens cannot afford any bad goaltending, so let&#8217;s hope their backup doesn&#8217;t let them down during a pivotal moment in the season.My bold prediction: if the Sens score at least one power play goal, they&#8217;ll win the game.Warren Foegele has done well for the Sens since his acquisition, so I&#8217;d like to see more from his teammate Zetterlund, who has the potential to be a much bigger offensive threat in fourth-line minutes.Tim St\u00fctzle remains the best player on the team by a wide margin, and while players like Giroux and Cozens are putting in the effort, we need better results from the rest of the top-6 to drive offence in Sanderson&#8217;s absence.It&#8217;s a Prime Time game today so we need the extra good vibes. You can catch the game at 7:30PM tonight on Amazon Prime or listen live at TSN1200. Puck drop will be closer to 7:50PM ET because of the pre-game ceremony for Mika Zibanejad&#8217;s 1000th game. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It seems the Sens have been in survival mode since January, but this week \u2013 and especially the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739],"class_list":["post-556000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ottawa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}