Senators 4, Oilers 3

Poor Ladislav Smid. Had Heatley not vetoed a trade to Edmonton, Smid might never have contracted the swine flu. In a game that will likely be billed as the Battle of the Diminished Heatley Returns (TM), Cogliano, Penner, Smid and the rest of the Edmonton Oilers arrive in Ottawa with some significant injuries and an abysmal road record (2-5-0). Even though they are coming off a victory that handed the Colorado Avalanche their first home loss, the Oilers will still be without stars Ales Hemsky and Sheldon Souray. In order for Ottawa to win, they have to play a more disciplined game and for everyone's sake, I hope that Cheechoo and Michalek outshine their counterparts so that we're spared from some more revisionist anti-Heatley commentary.

To view the rest of the Ottawa Citizen's panel predictions, click here.

Bryan Murray Looking to Deal:

“We have to make a tweak if we can,” Murray said Monday before heading to Toronto, where the National Hockey League’s 30 general managers are meeting this week to discuss head shots, rule changes, equipment standards and maybe a deal or two.

“Very definitely, we have to find a way to get at least one more player here,” he said, acknowledging that player would probably be another forward. “I’m certainly going to investigate as we go forward here to see if there’s anything more we can do, and at some point we’ll figure out if we need to make a change.” ~ courtesy of James Gordon, The Ottawa Citizen

Ottawa's forward ranks are already congested as is. God help us if Bryan Murray acquires another forward and buries Shean Donovan a little deeper down the depth chart. If there's a deal to be made, hopefully it involves a situation in which Bryan Murray can upgrade Jonathan Cheechoo. Unfortunately, based on the standings right now, the only team that's out of the playoff race are the Carolina Hurricanes. I'm not sure if old, expensive players like Rod Brind'Amour ($3.6M cap hit for this and next season) or Ray Whitney ($3.55 for just this year, but protected by a NTC) are appealing to Sens fans. However, if Carolina's not asking for much and Ottawa can move Cheechoo or Kelly's contract, maybe it's something worth considering.

Watch Out For Oilers Fans

One of Silver Seven Sens' sister sites doesn't understand why Sens fans would take issue with Dustin Penner thinking that Sens fans would prefer the Edmonton deal to the San Jose Heatley deal and are redirecting traffic here to check it out. Thanks for the hits fellas.