Matt Carkner News

The Ottawa Senators and the Tampa Bay Lightning have split their games so far this season.

THE STORY: If the Ottawa Senators are playing the Tampa Bay Lightning, someone's probably going to get a beating.

Welcome to CBCSports.ca's Fantasy Hockey 1-on-1, where every Friday our resident nerds a ' er, experts a ' Jesse Campigotto and Jordan Shifman, debate three hot topics of interest for poolies.

Sunday was a day off for the Ottawa Senators, time for reflection about how lucky breaks, weird bounces and good and bad results tend to even themselves out over the course of time.

SENATORS' EFFORT 5/10 THE GAME The Ottawa Senators might be content to just write this one off.

Senators defenceman Anton Volchenkov is expected to be lost to the club for at least a couple of weeks after suffering an elbow injury in Wednesday's 4-3 victory over the Florida Panthers.

Is the romance between Ottawa and Alexei Kovalev already on the rocks? Just nine games into his first season as a Senator, the stress cracks were showing.

SUNRISE, Fla. - As his teammates' equipment bags were being packed up Tuesday for the club's two-game road trip to Florida, Erik Karlsson's gear sat alone and untouched in the middle of the locker-room. When he emerged from a meeting with Ottawa Senators general manager Bryan Murray several minutes later, he knew why.

Defencemen Alex Picard and Matt Carkner were in recovery mode yesterday. Trying to forget what can only be described as a brutal night by the duo in Ottawa's 6-5 OT loss to the Predators on Thursday, Picard and Carkner have to put the mess behind them and move on with the Bruins in town tonight at Scotiabank Place.

There will be changes to the lineup tonight as the Ottawa Senators try to rebound from their 6-5 overtime loss to the Nashville Predators, but it looks as if they will come because of injury and illness.

So, just where does crazy stop and weird take over? "Just a weird, weird game," said Senators centre Jason Spezza.

NASHVILLE 6, OTTAWA 5 : Shea Weber scored his second goal of the game on a power play in overtime to give the Predators a victory over the host Senators on Thursday night.

Now that GM Bryan Murray has signed defenceman Matt Carkner to a two-year extension, the Senators will work on locking up Volchenkov, who is in the final year of a contract that pays him an average of $2.5 million per season.

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Clouston has Ottawa playing inspired hockey Cory Clouston has filled out the Ottawa Senators' coaching staff by bringing in Brad Lauer as an assistant coach.

Matt Carkner's storybook season with the Senators just keeps getting better. The rugged defenseman, who grew up just outside of Ottawa, signed a two-year contract extension with the NHL club on Tuesday afternoon.

Sometimes teams manage to win in spite of themselves, and that was certainly the case for the Ottawa Senators in Montreal.

When it was over, this strange night at the Bell Centre, Senators forward Alex Kovalev, named the third star, skated out for a last twirl and touched his heart twice, raising his hand to a cheering crowd.

Milan Michalek of the Ottawa Senators celebrates his hat trick with Daniel Alfredsson and Ryan Shannon against the Tampa Bay Lightning during third period action at Scotiabank Place in Ottawa, October 15, 2009.

The Ottawa Senators can't seem to find the back of the net with any frequency, yet they've still won more games than they've lost.