Welcome to my first Playoff preview, hopefully it won't be my last article covering the Sens this season. I've gotten a bit creative with the article here, let me know what you guys think?

What you've missed

Ottawa had a solid effort in the final week of the season, taking 2 points from Florida and 1 point from Tampa Bay. However, in the big final game of the year, celebrating Alfie's 1000th game, the Sens were beaten convincingly by Buffalo (and a whole lot of Thomas Vanek).

The Senators find themselves in 5th place in the East conference, and that will line them up to face last year's Stanley Cup champs, the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Season series:

Series tied, 2-2

12/10/2009 - Pittsburgh 4, Ottawa 1
19/11/2009 - Pittsburgh 2, Ottawa 6
23/12/2009 - Ottawa 2, Pittsburgh 8
28/01/2010 - Ottawa 4, Pittsburgh 1

Injuries:

- Alex Kovalev will be out the rest of the season with a torn ACL.

- Filip Kuba is also done for the season after having back surgery.

- Pens winger Chris Kunitz is day to day with an elbow injury, and Matt Cooke is also questionable after losing a fight and possibly suffering a concussion.

- Alexei Ponikarovski will finish his suspension today and should be available for the beginning of the first round.

Projected starting lineups:

Pens:

Kunitz-Crosby-Guerin
Ponikarovski-Malkin-Dupuis
Fedotenko-Staal-Kennedy
Cooke-Adams-Rupp

Gonchar-Eaton
Orpik-Letang
Leopold-Goligoski

Fleury

Sens:

Regin-Spezza-Alfredsson
Foligno-Fisher-Shannon
Michalek-Cullen-Cheechoo
Ruutu-Kelly-Neil

Phillips-Volchenkov
Sutton-Karlsson
Campoli-Carkner

Elliott

The Scouting Report

Pittsburgh have a very strong 1st line physically on the wings, and of course with great scoring potential. The Pens could use any number of wingers on Crosby's line and it would still look this good. The same can be said for Malkin's line - and you can guarantee if the Pens are down a goal or two late, they will double them up.

The 3rd line is essentially a 2nd 2nd line - Pittsburgh has an embarrassment of wealth down the middle. Fedotenko and Kennedy are capable grinding wingers. Cooke is a renowned goon, but it's important to note he also has a scoring touch, with 30 points this season. And the Pens also have Godard to sub in if extra intimidation is needed.

Gonchar's getting old in the tooth, but he still has a hard and accurate slap shot that is especially dangerous on the point of a powerplay. Orpik and Letang are a solid 2nd pairing and Jay McKee is more than capable of playing a shutdown role if required.

For the first time in a while, goaltending can be considered as a weakness. Fleury has had an up and down season and has a save percentage that ranks 35th in the NHL, hardly top shelf.

Keys to Victory

- Ottawa needs a big effort on specialty teams. Playoff hockey is tight and chances will be hard to come by. The Sens PP has struggled mightily at times this season, surprisingly so has the Pens. Whoever gets the edge in this department has a marked advantage.

- Score early, and score often. If the Sens can do that, they will go a long way to shaking up Fleury, who has shown he is not invincible if the opposition is good.

- The whole team needs to play solid shutdown D. The Pens are dangerous in so many ways offensively. With Sutton in the lineup and a group of good defensive minded forwards, Ottawa has an advantage if they can all play to their strengths.

- Coach Clouston really needs to be picky as to when he shuffles his lines. Despite his record, he has not coached in the NHL playoffs yet and he does like to switch up his players. If it is done at the right time, it could be that extra push the team needs, but it will be tough to know when enough is enough.

The X Factor

Demoted to save cap money and roster space earlier in the season, Jonathan Cheechoo has been given a golden opportunity to earn back some respect. With Kovalev injured, this is perhaps his final chance to prove he belongs on this team. We all know he has finishing skills and he works tirelessly, but his lack of speed has really been exploited in the past. Will he be able to produce on the big stage?

Who's Hot?

- Sidney Crosby has 10 points in the month of April before tonight's final game.

- Jordan Leopold has 3 goals in those 4 April games, the most of any Pittsburgh player.

- Jason Spezza has 6 points in the last 5 games.

- Erik Karlsson has 3 goals in April, also good enough to lead his team. He is also a team best +5 in those games.

GO SENS GO!!!

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AWESOME JOB MATT!!

Very very good read!

GO SENS GO!!!!!!!!!

WOO!!

Thanks Pascal...oh, I mean Erik...tricky name change there

Who's Pascal?

BTW, good stuff there Matt

Hahah

Great job Matt! Hopefully you'll do at least 3 more of these interesting previews!

What she said! I really liked the format Matt, and I'm looking forward to reading scouting reports on New Jersey, Washington, and finally Vancouver!

I like this thread...very well done "Matt" Exactley what I was looking for...THANKS!

Pens X factor: Malkin
Sens X factor: Volchenkov and Sutton

I would like to see Sutton step up his physical play tonight. He needs to agitate players like Malkin and Cooke.

Yes, indeed. He was timid last game - as others mentioned, perhaps he's scared of taking a penalty. Quite honestly, if he gets a hard hit on someone and gets to rattle their cages a bit - 2 minutes wouldn't be so bad.

Of course, it doesn't help that the Pens PP lit us up on Wednesday...

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He can ram over Crosby and take him out of the series and receive a game misconduct and i'll STILL be pumped.

If a Pens fan said that about Alfredsson, would you be pissed?

Do know how many fans of other teams have said that about Alfie? If its a clean hit, its a clean hit.

There was no hit though.

LOL ya. People hate Alfie so much that I can't have respect for some teams at all.

and vice versa

So I don't wish crosby to get injured personally. BUT I do wish Sutton to give him a nice clean hard hit. He was being such a little "whats the word" when he was diddling around, and people think he freaking won the game. He deserves a good solid clean hit (of course I NEVER will wish a dirty hit on anyone), although I'm sure if anyone would give crosby a solid clean hit that shook him up, they'd be out for the season. So I say, Shannon give crosby a good clean hit!

What can we do about it?