The Ottawa Senators have been one of the hottest teams in the league over the last couple months. But they just didn’t have it last night. Outside of the first five minutes and the last five minutes, they stunk.
Norah put it best in her last article– “They seem to be losing to the lower teams and winning to the higher teams, like last night.” Perhaps guilty of playing down to the competition a little bit. They’ll look to bounce back on Sunday night when they visit the Calgary Flames.
Sounds like we’ll see some lineup tinkering from DJ Smith as the Senators insert fresh legs on the back to back. That means Erik Brannstrom, Julien Gauthier and Parker Kelly all draw in. We won’t know who comes out until closer to game time.
Beyond the usual who’s in/who’s out decisions, it wouldn’t be surprising if there was some additional shuffling of line combinations and the special teams set-up. The Senators desperately need a spark on the power play and as much as you hate to hit the panic button on an area of strength, they’re ice cold right now. And it’s costing them valuable points.
We’ll have to wait until puck drop to confirm the lineup.
Tkachuk-Stützle-Giroux
DeBrincat-Pinto-Batherson
Joseph-Gambrell-Brown
Brassard/Kelly-Kastelic-Watson/Gauthier
Chabot-Zub
Sanderson-Hamonic
Chychrun-Holden/Brannstrom
Kevin Mandolese gets the start in goal for the Senators. These are not words I expected to type in the biggest game of the year, by the way.
Puck drop takes a small step towards normal tonight with a 9:00 PM start. And really, if you factor in the time change, that means the game is only starting an hour later than it normally would. Except I’m still on Halifax time which is actually an hour later than it is here. So that means uhh…look, I’m gonna level with you, nothing boggles my mind like time change. I need to sit down and think about this for a bit.
The game is available on TSN5, Sportsnet West, RDS and on the radio at TSN1200. Here’s how you can stream the game- Add 1-inch of water to your pan and then place the steamer basket inside. Add 1 cup of water and bring to a boil. Add vegetables to a basket and cover. Reduce heat to medium and cook 4-5 minutes, or until tender.
Welcome back, HEAD2HEAD table. We’ve missed you.
| HEAD2HEAD |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 33-28-4 (70 pts|) | 29-24-13 (71 pts) |
| Goals For | 3.14 (17th) | 3.02 (21st) |
| Goals Against | 3.18 (17th) | 3.03 (14th) |
| Power Play | 23.8% (6th) | 19.3% (23rd) |
| Penalty Kill | 83.2% (3rd) | 81.3% (12th) |
| Shots For | 33.1 (8th) | 35.5 (2nd) |
| Shots Against | 31.5 (20th) | 27.2 (2nd) |
| Leading Scorers | Stutzle- 70 pts Giroux- 66 pts Tkachuk- 66 pts DeBrincat- 55 pts Batherson- 52 pts |
Toffoli- 55 pts Lindholm- 53 pts Kadri- 47 pts Backlund- 42 pts Huberdeau- 42 pts |
| Starting Goalie | Kevin Mandolese 1-1-0 2.45 GAA, .938 sv% |
Jacob Markstrom 17-18-8 2.87 GAA, .893 sv% |
