Flames, Canucks, Sens, Leafs in action
The Sports Network
1/3/2004
The National Hockey League boasts another loaded schedule of games on Saturday, with the Ottawa Senators, Toronto Maple Leafs, Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks in action tonight.
The Senators hardly resemble the team that started the season. Ottawa tries to extend its longest unbeaten streak of the season to nine games when it faces the last-place Washington Capitals.
The Senators started this season strong with a 5-1-0-1 record, but then hit a 4-7-2-2 skid that briefly left them last in the Northeast Division. However, Ottawa enters this weekend as one of the league's hottest teams, unbeaten in its last eight games (6-0-2) and with just two losses in its last 15 (10-2-3).
Captain Daniel Alfredsson even went so far as to guarantee that the Senators would win the Stanley Cup.
"Go ahead and write it, I guarantee we'll win the Cup," he said. "I strongly believe this team will do it. No question about it. Hopefully this year. We've got the core, for sure, especially when we get everybody healthy."
Ottawa, which had the league's best record last season and reached Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals, has moved within six points of Toronto for the top spot in the Northeast Division.
The Senators proved they are the hottest team in the East, as they ended the New York Islanders' six-game win streak, 1-0 Thursday.
The Maple Leafs may lead the Northeast Division, but it is the Buffalo Sabres that have been playing like a first-place team of late. The Maple Leafs hope to snap back into form as they host the surging Sabres at the Air Canada Centre.
Toronto is 0-2-1 since earning at least one point in a team-record 16 straight games, while the last-place Sabres have won four of five since an eight-game winless streak.
"That's just not the way our club should be playing, and we had better shape it up," Maple Leafs coach Pat Quinn said. "We're hopers right now. We hope everything goes our way."
The Maple Leafs have earned at least a point in 13 of their 15 home games this season (10-2-1-2). Toronto is coming off a 3-2 loss at Boston on Thursday.
Despite a three-game winless streak to end December, the Calgary Flames are coming off an awesome month of hockey. They hope to continue their surprising rise in the Northwest Division standings when they host the first-place Vancouver Canucks at the Pengrowth Saddledome.
Calgary went 10-3-2 in December, moving into third place in the Northwest, just six points behind Vancouver. However, the Flames have been unable to play effectively against the Canucks, going winless in three meetings this season (0-2-1), and going without a victory in any of their last eight home matchups in the series (0-6-2).
The last time the clubs met, Dec. 26 in Calgary, the Flames had a six-game unbeaten streak (5-0-1) snapped with a 2-0 loss to the Canucks.
Calgary finished off 2003 with a tough 2-1 home loss to Colorado. Jamie McLennan made 29 saves in his first start for the Flames in place of Miikka Kiprusoff, who will be out four to six weeks with a sprained knee.
Kiprusoff was 11-3-2 and led the NHL in goals-against average (1.48) and save percentage (.941). He was injured in the first period of Calgary's 2-2 tie with Minnesota on Monday night.
"It's certainly a big blow for us, he's played so well and the team's played so well," McLennan said. "But we've dealt with adversity before. We've dealt with Roman (Turek) going down, we've lost Craig Conroy, we lost (Steven) Reinprecht and you name it right down the line. We'll deal with Kipper going down."
The Canucks had a chance to pad their lead in the division, but suffered a 4-2 loss to second-place Colorado, shaving their advantage to four points. Markus Naslund and Brad May scored for Vancouver, which failed to record at least one point for just the third time in 13 games.
May, a healthy scratch Monday for Vancouver's 3-2 win at Colorado, has two goals and an assist in his last three games after going without a goal in his first 34 games with the Canucks.
Vancouver right wing Jason King, the NHL rookie of the month in November, was a healthy scratch for the second straight game Friday after failing to register a point in December.
Cheers,
Aquaman