A night after a pretty entertaining shootout loss in Chicago, the Ottawa Senators travel home for the second half of a back to back against one of the league's top teams and a legitmiate Stanley Cup contender.

The Tampa Bay Lightning pay a visit to Canadian Tire Centre a couple of days after fog in Ottawa forced them to divert to Syracuse to spend Wendesday night. Usually a stop in Syracuse isn't the preferred destination for Lightning players, as that is where their AHL team calls home.

I found the Senators game in Chicago one of the more entertaing games in recent memory, even if Guy Boucher's shootout selection order continues to confound and amaze.

Matt Duchene and Zack Smith scored for Ottawa, both set up by Mark Stone, that answered goals from Patrick Kane and Artem Ansimov that had given the Hawks one goal leads. If you add all the goals except the Duchene goal, the total distance of the shots that beat the respective goalies might be 6 feet, as they were all tap-ins or deflections.

Ottawa had many chances to win this one, both in the third period and overtime, but coudn't capitalize on their chances. The result was much closer than the game they played in Ottawa January 9th, which was an 8-2 drubbing that quite frankly I had erased from my memory.

The Lightning come in to this one with a tenuous hold on first place in the Atlantic Division, just a point up on the surging Boston Bruins, who also hold a couple of games in hand. Tampa has lost 3 of their last 5 games, and the gap between themselves and third place Toronto is also shrinking.

Whether this is just a "dog-days" of the season skid or a sign of problems remains to be seen, but the Lightning need to right the ship, and could very well pick tonight to send a message. That, or they realize they need help and Steve Yzerman pays the price to bring Erik Karlsson on the plane to Montreal with his club.

While that scenario still defies the odds, it is not out of the realm of possibility as I said months ago that Tampa would be the best fit for Karlsson if there was a trade to be made. I have read a lot of social media comments that indicate that if the Senators trade Karlsson they might as well fold the team, or they would stop supporting the club. However, the ball isn't entirely in Pierre Dorion's court, and if he gets any indication that Karlsson is going to price himself out of the market (which is a distinct possibility and I wouldn't offer a blank cheque either) or that he doesn't see a winning future with the club and wants to have a better chance (also a very distinct possibility) then fans have to come to terms with it and getting the most return for him is the most important thing.

That being said, if they do trade Karlsson and move the needle from RETOOL to REBUILD, then they don't need to trade Bobby Ryan or force him in as part of a Karlsson deal that might mitigate the return for the blueliner. A Karlsson trade along with the current goaltending situation firmly closes any Senators' window for 3 or 4 years, during which it doesn't really matter if Ryan and his jell-o hands are dealt or not anyway.

At that point forcing Ryan on a trading partner moves it from being a hockey deal (which you can argue a Karlsson trade is, whether you like the move or not) to a deal purely driven by money. The latter in my mind also confirms even more (if that were possible) most people's impression, fear, frustration and concern about the future direction under the current ownership, which is already on incredibly thin ice.

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