Sens, Jets both coming off morale-boosting wins, face off tonight

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This article was published 05/11/2015 (3617 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — Recreating the magic of earlier in the year isn’t just as simple as wishing for it.

The Ottawa Senators, who surged with a 23-4-4 finish to last season to get into the Eastern Conference playoffs, have found the going tougher to start 2015-16.

The Sens are a not-great-but-not-bad 6-4-1 to start the new year but have just one win in six home games (1-3-2) so far.

They meet the Winnipeg Jets (8-4-1) tonight at Canadian Tire Centre (6:30 p.m. CT, TSN3, TSN1290).

“Maybe take every game like… well, it’s not like we prepare differently on the road or at home,” said Sens forward Mike Hoffman after this morning’s optional skate. “It’s just sometimes the stat thing is a bit of a fluke. But it would be nice to get a couple more wins here at home.”

Senators coach Dave Cameron has noticed a difference in his team here.

“We’re just playing with less emotion for whatever reason,” Cameron said. “If I knew the reason it would have been solved a long time ago. We need them to take ownership for it.”

The Sens are feeling better about their start after dropping the league-leading Montreal Canadiens in overtime in Montreal on Tuesday night.

The Jets are also coming to tonight from a bounce-back game, surging in the third period Wednesday night to defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2. Tonight marks the Jets’ eighth road game of the season — played in four sets of back-to-backs.

The team is 5-2-0 on the road so far and concludes this four-game road trip tonight, 2-1-0 so far.

“We know Winnipeg played last night so we kind of want to get on them early,” Hoffman said. “They’re having a pretty good year so far so it’ll be a pretty good challenge for us.”

Senators sniper Bobby Ryan said his team must be wary of an opponent that can play it multiple ways.

“No matter how much they want to grind, they can create that speed and open ice, so it’s going to be a (challenge),” Ryan said this morning.

The Sens look like they’re going with Craig Anderson, 5-3-1, for tonight’s affair.

The Jets are likely to counter with Michael Hutchinson, 4-1-0. Hutchinson did go on the ice with just four teammates (Anthony Peluso, Patrice Cormier, Adam Pardy, Paul Postma) this morning at Canadian Tire Centre but the bulk of the Jets didn’t come to the rink, just meeting instead.

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca