The night before the Senators flew to Raleigh for Game 1 of the playoffs, Tim St\u00fctzle and Drake Batherson were watching old\u00a0NHL playoffs highlights dating back as early as the year 2000 \u2014 before St\u00fctzle was even alive \u2014 to get them fired up for the games ahead.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of excitement, and just seeing the crowd, pretty awesome,\u201d said St\u00fctzle of those clips, speaking to the media on Friday morning after practice. \u201cWe\u2019ve been in the mood for a long time now. I feel like we\u2019ve been playing playoff hockey since the 40-game mark.\u201d<\/p>\n
Travis Green led the Senators through a series of drills with more intensity than normal ahead of Saturday\u2019s playoff opener against the Carolina Hurricanes. After the\u00a0practice, the Sens set out for Raleigh, N.C, where they\u2019ll meet the Hurricanes at 3 p.m. on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought today\u2019s practice was fast, and there was a lot of purpose in our practice, the players were dialled in,\u201d said Green.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou probably see that around the league though; everyone knows that this is why you play the game. You grow up as a kid waiting to play playoff hockey. There\u2019s no team that\u2019s different in the league, they\u2019re all excited to play right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Green said that with the team knowing they\u2019d be playing the Hurricanes since Tuesday, there were a couple of extra days of prep work leading up to a practice focused specifically on preparing for their first-round opponent.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to take a lot, I mean, it\u2019s the best team in the East,\u201d said Thomas Chabot. \u201cWe know we\u2019re in the underdog position; we know where we\u2019re at, but I have a lot of belief in our group. This is going to be a hard-fought series, it\u2019s going to be tight every night, I expect. And you know what, [Carolina is] a tough building to play in. That building brings a lot of energy even in the season. Until the first TV timeout, that\u2019s a team that comes real hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Defenceman Tyler Kleven skated with the group for the first time since taking a puck to the face on April 2. He donned a yellow non-contact jersey and was wearing a jaw protection shield along with his visor at the practice.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s closer to playing, obviously he\u2019s out with the group,\u201d said Green, who didn\u2019t rule him out from returning as soon as Game 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019d be huge, I mean, he\u2019s been such a big piece to this team all year, he\u2019s played so good,\u201d said Thomas Chabot. \u201cHis presence, how physical he is, how strong he is, there\u2019s not many guys like him out there. So obviously if we could get him, hopefully either next game or in the next couple games, it\u2019ll be a big add for us for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Kleven isn\u2019t ready go for Game 1, one possibility for the bottom pairing is Dennis Gilbert, who skated alongside Nikolas Matinpalo on Friday. Gilbert has played 119 NHL games over the past eight seasons but has yet to make his postseason debut.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously it\u2019s a high-intensity, high-pressure situation, but this is what everybody dreams of doing and what everybody wants to do,\u201d said Gilbert. \u201cThat\u2019s kind of been my mindset throughout the last bunch of years of my career, is be a good pro, be ready to rock and roll, and make sure you\u2019re putting the work in so you\u2019re ready to jump in whenever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gilbert suffered an upper-body injury against Toronto on March 21 but was able to rehab and get back to game shape ahead of schedule. He appeared for the Sens against New Jersey on April 12 and Toronto on April 15.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say nerves, I think it\u2019s just a really exciting opportunity for all of us,\u201d said Gilbert when asked about the opportunity to make his playoff debut on the road in Carolina.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThose electric buildings that you get a chance to play in, it feels like it\u2019s 1-1 with eight minutes left to go in the third on the opening faceoff. That\u2019s that high-leverage, high-pressure hockey that we train so hard to get ready for, and I think we\u2019re up for the challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The night before the Senators flew to Raleigh for Game 1 of the playoffs, Tim St\u00fctzle and Drake…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739],"class_list":["post-612476","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\/612476","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=612476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}