Red Hot!

Thursday and Friday night saw the extension of two very impressive win streaks. One surprising, one not so much.

Two nights ago, another team that's been heating up of late, the Vancouver Canucks visited Scotiabank Place with the intent of ending a 10-game win-streak of the Sens. The 'Nucks had won 6 of their last 7 through the benefit of the hottest line in the league in January -- Alex Burrows and the Sedin Twins. Red-hot rookie netminder, Brian Elliot was equal to the potency of the dominant line as he extended his own personal win-streak to 9 games as the Senators never really looked like losing en route to a 3-1 decision extending their streak to 11.

24 hours later, in a somewhat contrasting affair, the Capitals pushed their league-leading, frachise-record streak to 13 straight wins, this time with a win over the Kovy-less Atlanta Thrashers 5-2.

The significance of the extension of these two streaks is the potential record-setting "Something's Gotta Give" match-up between these two next Thursday if both sides can remain in the win column until then. If this indeed does happen, the Senators will place their 13-game streak up against the 15-game mark of the Caps. Two teams playing each with a combined 28-game winning streak will be an NHL record.

Before that, the Caps must survive "Ovechkin vs. Crosby II" on Sunday in Washington and be successful in a visit to Montreal while Ottawa visits the disappointing Leafs tonight and plays host to Calgary on Tuesday.

The chances of this big meeting on Thursday night having the significance of a record-breaking streak vs. streak are still somewhat low. Four games need to be won:

• Tonight 2/6 - Ottawa @ Toronto: The Leafs will be looking to get a win in honor of the tragic loss of Brendan Burke - son of Leafs' GM, Brian - who died last night in a horrible car accident.
• Sunday 2/7 - Pittsburgh @ Washington: The Caps are at home and won the last meeting in Pittsburgh pretty handily, but beating the reigning Champs is never a simple task. NB: Don't anticipate seeing anything else covered on NHL.com but this game.
  
• Tuesday 2/9 - Calgary @ Ottawa: Call it addition by subtraction or just coincidence, but the Flames seem to have responded very well to the recent changes to the club -- no easy game for the Senators.
• Wednesday 2/10 - Washington @ Montreal: Of all four games, this is probably the most winnable for the streaking team. Montreal are not to be underestimated though, and if Halak is in goal and on his game, the Caps will find it very difficult to find the net 6 or 7 times as they seem to so frequently do.

So something big could be waiting right around the corner next Thursday. Again, there is still a very good chance both these streaks will no longer be intact, but even if so, it should prove to be a very interesting game between the two hottest teams going around. Incidentally, I might put myself on the line with the early prediction -- winner: the fans!

Okay yeah that was a huge copout and hideously clichéd... deal with it.