NHL Game Of The Week

One of the NHL’s most intriguing matchups of the week takes us to a big one at the Canadian Tire Centre in the Canadian capital of Ottawa.

The blazing Washington Capitals visit the up and coming playoff hopeful Ottawa Senators on Thursday night.

The Senators enter Thursday’s game with a record of 26-20-4 and winners of their last two, sweeping their third straight back-to-back weekend.

Coming off a 2-1 win over the Maple Leafs and a 3-1 win over the Utah Hockey Club has the Sens sitting in third place in the Atlantic division with 56 points.

Tim Stutzle is Ottawa's leading point scorer with 48 points in 50 games and is coming off a three point weekend with a goal and two assists.

Before this past weekend's games, Stutzle had not recorded a point in five of his last six games but will look to keep building momentum after the three day break.

Winger Drake Batherson is turning in another solid season with 14 goals and 26 assists.

Batherson is second on the team in scoring and has been great alongside Stutzle and Brady Tkachuk on the top line.

Brady Tkachuk has registered 19 goals to this point in the season and also ranks second in the league penalty minutes with 97.

Tkachuk has no problem mixing it up if he has to and that is exactly what the Sens want as they look to continue their winning ways against the Capitals.

Washington comes into Thursday's game with a record of 34-11-5 and a league leading 73 points.

The Capitals finished up a four game west coast trip with a 3-1 win over the Calgary Flames on Tuesday and came away with six of the available eight points on the trip.

This team has surprised everybody at this point in the season being how good they are.

Dylan Strome has been magnificent and leads the team in scoring with 47 points in 50 games in what could end up being a career year.

Young center Aliaksei Protas is having a breakout year with a very impressive 21 even strength goals and is a +29, tied for the league lead.

The Caps have got great offensive contributions from Pierre-Luc Dubois who is having a career resurgence and Connor McMichael who has seemed to build a tremendous stride from a season ago.

The Great Eight Alexander Ovechkin is now only 19 goals away from surpassing Wayne Gretzky for the most all-time.

If Ovi is able to keep up what he has done through only 34 games this season, we might have a new goal leader by the end of the season.

Ovechkin has scored 22 goals in a year where he missed 16 games due to a broken leg in November.

The defense and goaltending has been elite with guys like Jakob Chychrun and John Carlson on the back end.

The netminder tandem of Logan Thompson and Charlie Lindgren has been great.

It is rare these days to see a tandem capable of splitting starts 50-50 and doing this well.

Thompson has played in 28 games and owns a 23-2-3 record and a 2.05 GAA which is second in the league.

Thompson’s amazing first half earned him a six-year, $35.1 million contract on Monday.

The Capitals look to finish off a stellar road trip with a win in Ottawa in a big Eastern Conference matchup.

Puck drop is scheduled for 7 P.M. EST on Thursday.

Austin Moran is a second-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email acm6506@psu.edu.