The Senators boarded a plane for Edmonton to start their annual western Canada road swing Monday afternoon. The question is: Will this team look the same when it lands back in Ottawa in the wee hours of Sunday morning?

With a three-game winning streak under their belt as they embark on this trip that will end less than 48 hours before the NHL trade deadline set for next Monday at 3 p.m., the Senators can give GM Bryan Murray pause for thought if they’re able to string some wins together.

“(Murray) doesn’t have an easy job. He’s always thinking big picture. You want to win, for sure, but you want to win for a long time,” defenceman Mark Borowiecki said Monday. “He’s got some hard decisions to make.

“For us, we’re a really tight-knit group and seeing guys leave sucks. That’s one way to look at it: We’re going to keep all our buddies here, all our friends here by putting up some points here and making it a tough decision and if that’s what motivates us, then so be it.”

The belief is if the Senators can pick up five of six points on this trip then Murray will consider being a buyer. He’s not in the market for a rental player, but if he could pick up somebody young with some term left on his deal and upside potential then he might be willing to add to this group.

Of course, the Senators have already made a massive move by picking up defenceman Dion Phaneuf from the Toronto Maple Leafs, but Murray has never been one to sit still.

“If we come out of this trip with (three wins) it’s pretty hard to ignore the fact that we’re making a push and there’s a legitimate chance of us making it. We need some help in the standings but it puts Bryan in that situation where (adding) might be the smartest thing to do,” Borowiecki added.

Murray made the trip along with assistant GMs Pierre Dorion and Randy Lee along with special adviser Daniel Alfredsson. The Senators would like to move defenceman Patrick Wiercioch and winger Shane Prince before the deadline, but it’s not known what level of interest their might be in that duo.

The players will be watching to see where all of this lands in the next six days.

“There’s always guys that feel like their names (are) out there and with six points in the last week we made it a little harder on them to move everybody,” said winger Bobby Ryan. “Anything that will make our team better, you’re always hopeful that something happens.

“At the same time, we’ve got one of the closest groups I’ve been around and I don’t think there’s a whole lot of eagerness for change in the room.”

THIS ’N’ THAT

There are not many players who have more confidence than winger Zack Smith at the moment. He has tied a career-high with 14 goals this season and has been playing on the second line with Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Curtis Lazar. “You score a few goals and you have a bit of success and (confidence) kind of snowballs from there,” said Smith. “Right now, for example when we were matched up against (Detroit’s) top line, we have a great shutdown line and we want to go out there and play against their top line and not get scored against. At the same time, we’re playing with some confidence, so we want to score goals and help out offensively. We don’t put a lot of pressure on ourselves to score goals, though.” ... There will be no rematch between Oilers defenceman Eric Gryba and Smith in Edmonton. The two former teammates, who dropped the gloves in Ottawa in the Senators’ 7-2 loss on Feb. 4, won’t get a chance to see each other on the ice. Gryba is out for at least a month with a knee injury. He was scheduled to have dinner with Borowiecki on Monday night ... The Senators sent winger David Dziurzynski to their AHL affiliate in Binghamton on Monday. He has been recovering from an undisclosed injury but skated with the team and would have been an extra forward because Prince has been scratched in three straight games.

THE LAST WORDS

The Tampa Bay Lightning is trying to move former Senators winger Erik Condra before the deadline. Signed to a three-year deal worth $1.25 million per season in the off-season by the Bolts, he’s regularly been a healthy scratch and Tampa wouldn’t mind getting the contract off the books and has shopped Condra around to several teams ... Winger Clarke MacArthur made the trip and coach Dave Cameron indicated he could return soon from the concussion he suffered in early October that his kept him out most of the season. That won’t happen before the Senators return from this road swing though because he has to pass the baseline test before getting clearance to play. “I’m just waiting for him to get cleared. I’d say he’s close but when I don’t know. The sooner, the better,” Cameron said. MacArthur said Saturday he wants to play but it could also depend on where the club is in the playoff race as well.

Email: bgarrioch@postmedia.com

Twitter: @sungarioch