GAME DAY: Ottawa Senators @ Florida Panthers - 6:00pm ET

SENATORS (19-12-6) at PANTHERS (12-20-6)

TV: SNET-E, TVA; FS-F

Last 10: Ottawa 6-4-0; Florida 5-5-0

Season series: The Ottawa Senators go for a sweep of the three-game series against the Florida Panthers, a team they've beaten in 11 of their past 12 meetings. Ottawa swept a home-and-home series in the first week of the season.

Big story: The Senators get full marks for their performance thus far this season -- they're a solid sixth in the Eastern Conference despite a list of injuries that would have destroyed a lesser team. But as they prepare for the third game of a seven-game trip, they starting to see teams creeping up on them -- the New York Rangers and New York Islanders are just two points behind them -- and beating the Eastern Conference's worst team is a must after losses in Boston and Buffalo.

Team Scope:

Senators: With another tough week on the road ahead of them, the Senators poised to get some reinforcements. Goaltender Craig Anderson, who was nothing short of brilliant in the 15 games he played before suffering a high ankle sprain, should be ready to go against Florida.

Anderson's return would be a shot in the arm for an overachieving team that's dropped three in a row.

"I personally believe that it's even more important now to stay upbeat, stay confident in what we're doing. I don't think we're that far off at all because it's so close as it is in the League," captain Daniel Alfredsson said after Friday's 4-2 loss to the Buffalo Sabres. "We're not the only team that's gone through this and we're not going to be the last one either. We'll find a way to weather through this."

Panthers: Nothing went right in the first two periods against the Washington Capitals on Saturday night, and the Panthers' three-goal third period was only good enough to turn a 4-0 deficit into a disappointing 4-3 loss that ended Florida's three-game winning streak.

The NHL's worst penalty-killing team allowed the League's top power play to score three times. Even coach Kevin Dineen had a tough night -- he failed to put a player in the box to serve Eric Gudbranson's five-minute major before the time expired, meaning the Panthers had to continue playing a man down until the next whistle. Unfortunately for the Panthers, that whistle came when Quinton Howden was called for hooking -- a penalty that led to Mike Ribeiro's power-play goal in the first minute of the second period.

"I made a huge mistake," Dineen said. "It gets hung on me. Really, the game gets hung on me. I didn't put a guy in the penalty box, the penalty expires, we have nobody to come out of the box, so we're still short and we ended up taking another one, [and] they scored one at the beginning of the second. Bad coaching error by me."

Who's hot: Ottawa rookie Mika Zibanejad has six assists in his past five games. … Tomas Kopecky scored twice against Washington and has three goals in his past two games to take the team lead with 15.

Injury report: Even if Anderson can play, the Senators are still without their top defenseman, Erik Karlsson (Achilles) and top-line forwards Milan Michalek (knee) and Jason Spezza (back). … The Panthers have been decimated with injuries, including center Stephen Weiss (wrist surgery) and forward Kris Versteeg (knee), both of whom are gone for the season. They're also missing defensemen Ed Jovanovski (hip surgery) and Mike Weaver (knee), as well as goaltender Jose Theodore (groin).

Ottawa coach Paul MacLean called this meeting with the Florida Panthers a "must win."

His team doesn't usually have much trouble winning against them anyway.

The Senators look to continue their dominance of the last-place Panthers in order to avoid matching their longest losing streak of the season.

Ottawa (19-12-6) has lost three in a row in regulation for the first time this season after falling 4-2 at Buffalo on Friday, three days after opening a seven-game road trip with a 3-2 defeat to Boston.

The Senators, who went 0-2-2 from Feb. 28-March 6, have seen their playoff position turn tenuous. They're sixth in the Eastern Conference, two points ahead of the seventh-place tie between the New York Rangers and Islanders and four in front of Winnipeg in ninth.

MacLean is stressing urgency in order to expand that lead.

"We can't do anything about the last three, all we can do is something about the next one we play," MacLean said. "It's a must-win to make sure that we stop the bleeding type of thing."

The last of three season meetings with the Panthers (12-20-6) is timely.

Ottawa has scored 47 goals while winning 11 of the last 12 matchups, including both this year. Craig Anderson made 25 saves to lead the Senators to a 3-1 win in the most recent visit to BB&T Center on Jan. 24, three days after he stopped 31 shots in a 4-0 home win.

They've won six of the last seven road meetings, and may have Anderson back in net for the first time since he injured his ankle in a 3-2 shootout win over the Rangers on Feb. 21.

He's 9-0-1 with a 1.59 goals-against average and two shutouts in his last 10 starts against the Panthers, winning his last four games in Florida behind a 1.25 GAA.

Cory Conacher will against try to make an impact for Ottawa after a pointless team debut Friday. He was acquired in a trade that sent goalie Ben Bishop to Tampa Bay two days prior.

The center played on a line with fellow rookies Mika Zibanejad and Jakob Silfverberg, who combined for three assists.

"I felt really comfortable with the team. It's an easy fit to play with those guys," said Conacher, who has three points in four meetings with the Panthers.

Conacher's 24 points on the season rank second among rookies, two behind Jonathan Huberdeau of Florida.

Huberdeau has six points in five games, but has yet to manage one in two games versus Ottawa.

The Panthers own the worst record in the East, and resembled that lowly status Saturday when they fell behind by four goals before their third-period rally fell short in a 4-3 loss to Washington. They had won three in a row.

Tomas Kopecky has three goals in two games after netting two versus the Capitals. The right wing has scored 11 of his 15 goals at home, and his next tally at any venue will set a new career high.

Shawn Matthias is also looking to continue his strong stretch. The center has seven points in five games after getting two assists Saturday.

Steve Warne ‏@TGORSteve

I will now be gauging Sens fan confidence DEFCON style 5-1. SENSCON 1 is missing the playoffs. I'm afraid we went to SENSCON 4 last night.

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Our usage of #SENSCON - the official Sens fan panic gauge - may become frequent in the coming days, so I'd better own it now: #SENSCON™

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Well, the Senator masses have spoken. So, on the SENSCON rating of 5 (best) to 1 (missing playoffs) I've no choice to move us to SENSCON 3!

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Your #SENSCON™ TV Guide today: May consider moving to #SENSCON 4™ if PHIL, NJ and WAS all lose today.

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shabbs wrote:Time for to take over and run this mother Diddler.