That game on Sunday night was exactly what the doctor ordered for the Ottawa Senators.
Heading into the third period with a lead, the Sens locked it down. They took care of their own end of the rink, got saves when they needed them and banked an important two points against a pretty good hockey team. A step in the right direction. But if the Senators are going to make a run in the second half of the season, they’re going to need to start stringing efforts like that together.
They’ll look to build on Sunday’s showing when they host the struggling Columbus Blue Jackets.
One change to the lineup as Erik Brannstrom draws back in, taking the spot of Jacob Bernard-Docker. Still no timeline on Josh Norris although he has been a fairly regular participant in practice the last week or so. Tyler Motte is at least a week away and Mathieu Joseph is about the same.
One day we’ll see a full lineup. One day.
Here’s how the Senators are expected to arrange themselves this evening.
Tkachuk-Stützle-Giroux
DeBrincat-Pinto-Batherson
Kelly-Gambrell-Lucchini
Brassard-Kastelic-Watson
Chabot-Zub
Sanderson-Hamonic
Holden-Brannstrom
Anton Forsberg gets a second straight start for the Senators.
Puck drop is scheduled for just after 7:08 PM at the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa. The game is available on TSN5, RDS2 and on various reasonably priced streaming sites across the interest. Speaking of reasonably priced, still tickets available for this one if seeing live hockey is the kind of thing you’re interested in.
Here’s a closer look at this evening’s match-up via the table that experts are calling “definitely a table”. It’s the HEAD2HEAD table.
| HEAD2HEAD |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 11-22-2 (24 pts) | 17-17-3 (37 pts) |
| Goals For | 2.69 (27th) | 3.00 (24th) |
| Goals Against | 3.91 (31st) | 3.14 (17th) |
| Power Play | 15.8% (30th) | 27.7% (4th) |
| Penalty Kill | 78.6% (16th) | 81.7% (9th) |
| Shots For | 29.4 (27th) | 33.2 (6th) |
| Shots Against | 35.3 (31st) | 32.5 (22nd) |
| Leading Scorers | Gaudreau- 37 pts Jenner- 22 pts Roslovic- 19 pts Nyquist- 18 pts Johnson- 16 pts |
Tkachuk- 38 pts DeBrincat- 36 pts Batherson- 35 pts Giroux- 34 pts Stützle- 33 pts |
| Starting Goalie | Joonas Korpisalo 5-6-1 3.13 GAA, .912 sv% |
Anton Forsberg 6-8-2 3.09 GAA, .910 sv% |
