Finding ways to win.
That’s the name of the game for the Ottawa Senators lately. Elite goaltending, reliable defence, timely goal scoring (if you want to call it that) and one of the league’s best success rates on the penalty kill. Sometimes it’s tough to believe we’re watching the same team as last year.
The Senators will look to keep things rolling when they play host to the Nashville Predators.
The last time these two teams met back in Nashville a week ago, the Senators turned in what Guy Boucher called Ottawa’s worst game of the season. They got down early in the game, got away from the system a little bit, and let the Predators dictate the pace of the game most of the night.
While this Nashville team has been dominant on home ice, as Ottawa found out the hard way last week, they’ve struggled on the road. They have just one win in eight tries as the visitor including a 6-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday night. They’ll get a bit of a boost tonight though as Pekka Rinne is expected to return to the lineup.
From Ottawa’s side of things, the focus remains finding a way to score some friggin’ goals. They’ve scored just 11 regulation time goals in 8 games during the month of November. And while they’re finding a way to bank points during this little goal scoring funk, it’s putting a lot of pressure on their goaltending, defence and penalty kill.
The Senators are scoring a power play goal tonight. Book it.
This morning, the team announced that Max McCormick has been recalled from Binghamton. It’s his second call-up of the season. Mike Hoffman wasn’t on the ice for the morning skate and isn’t expected to play. He crashed hard into the Flyers net on Tuesday night. Dzingel was hit with a shot during the morning skate and was helped off the ice. Safe to say his status is up in the air at this point.
Dzingel-Turris-Ryan
Brassard-Pageau-Stone
Smith-Kelly-Pyatt
Puempel-McCormick-Neil
Methot-Karlsson
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Mike Condon was in the starter’s net at the morning skate so it seems like he’ll start. Puck drop is scheduled for just after 7:30 PM.
