The Ottawa Senators have had a bit of a weird schedule so far this season, filled with lengthy and unnecessary breaks.
This most recent three-day lull came at a perfect time though. Not only because the Sens have been busy the last little while but with an overtime win under their belts, the team was able to go into that break feeling a little bit better about themselves.
The game against the Pittsburgh Penguins obviously wasn’t a work of art but Ottawa was clearly the better team for the first 40 minutes and in the end, found a way to win a hockey game. Steps in the right direction, at least.
The Senators will look to build on that effort when they visit the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday night. Yes, it’s Wednesday apparently.
The schedule doesn’t get any easier though as tonight’s game kicks off a stretch where they’ll play every second day for the next couple weeks. Tonight in Toronto, back home for games against the Devils and Sabres and then another five-game road trip with stops in Vancouver, Seattle, Edmonton, Calgary and Buffalo.
Senators gave a game day skate scheduled for 11:30 AM in Toronto so we’ll find out more about the lineup then. Although as Jacques Martin said before the game against Pittsburgh, it’s not like they have a lot of options right now.
Yesterday, both Angus Crookshank and Jiri Smejkal have been recalled from Belleville, which likely means same lineup. A best guess for now…
Tkachuk-Stützle-Giroux
Tarasenko-Norris-Batherson
Kubalik-Greig- Crookshank
Smejkal-Kastelic-Kelly
Sanderson-Zub
Chychrun-Hamonic
Brannstrom-Bernard-Docker
Joonas Korpisalo is in the starters end at the morning skate.
Puck drop is scheduled for 7:08 PM in the Big Smoke. The game is available on Sportsnet, TSN1200 and on various streaming sites across the information super highway.
A closer look at this evening’s match-up via the HEAD2HEAD table.
| HEAD2HEAD |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 12-17-0 (24 pts) | 17-8-6 (40 pts) |
| Goals For | 3.41 (8th) | 3.58 (8th) |
| Goals Against | 3.55 (28th) | 3.35 (23rd) |
| Power Play | 17.6% (23rd) | 26.4% (4th) |
| Penalty Kill | 71.3% (31st) | 79.2% (19th) |
| Shots For | 32.5 (8th) | 32.6 (7th) |
| Shots Against | 30.6 (16th) | 32.5 (27th) |
| Leading Scorers | Stutzle-32 pts Giroux-27 pts Batherson- 26 pts Chychrun-24 pts Tkachuk-24 pts |
Nylander-45 pts Matthews-41 pts Marner-36 pts Tavares-30 pts Rielly-23 pts |
| Starting Goalie | Joonas Korpisalo 6-11-0 3.62 GAA, .891 sv% |
Martin Jones 4-1-0 2.79 GAA, .917 sv% |
