The Edmonton Oilers have enjoyed quite a bit of success this season against the Ottawa Senators. In five meetings with the Sens, the Oilers are a perfect 5-0-0. To make matters worse for Ottawa, all five of Edmonton’s victories have come in regulation. On the scoreboard, it’s been total domination for the Oilers.
The games, however, haven’t been that way. The Oilers blew away Ottawa in the first meeting, but each of the last four have been tightly contested tilts. Monday night’s 3-2 Oilers victory was no exception, as the Senators pushed hard in the final moments of the game looking for the equalizer.
As the sides get ready to meet for the sixth time this season tonight, Oilers coach Dave Tippett is looking ahead, not backwards. He knows this Senators team, regardless of what some may think, is no free space on the bingo card.
“I don’t look at the other five, I look at the one that’s right in front of us. You prepare to win the next game in front of you,” Tippett said on Tuesday. “You understand that you’ve had some success against them and take some of that to try to put into a formula to win. But you also understand what the other team is doing. They played a lot better than when we played them earlier in the year.”
The Senators struck first on Monday night, scoring less than a minute into the game. The tilt was tied after twenty minutes, and the Oilers only led by one after forty. Even down 3-1, Ottawa didn’t quit and fought back to cut the deficit to one. Joey Daccord was also outstanding in goal for the Senators in defeat.
“You take it game-to-game and recognize your opponent but it’s how we have to play and it doesn’t matter if it’s Ottawa, Calgary or whoever it is,” Tippett continued. “We’ve got to play a really competitive, solid game. We’ve been fortunate to get points out of Ottawa this year but every game is a difficult, difficult game.”
Tonight, the start will be key for Edmonton. The Oilers controlled most of the final 50 minutes on Monday night, but were sluggish out of the gate for the second game in a row. Against a team that works as hard as the Senators, that could be a recipe for disaster. The push will be coming from a young Senators team.
“You look at last game, we knew they played the night before in Calgary and were coming in,” Tippett added. “They’re going to start hard, they’re going to push, they’re a team that doesn’t quit. Going into tomorrow’s game, we know they’re going to be fresher. You know your opponent but it’s less about your record and more about how you’re going to win on that given night. That’s how we’ve approached a lot of these back-to-back games and will stay with that tomorrow.”
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