There are must-win games and then there are nice-to-haves.
Realistically, tonight’s game fits into that second category. It’s no secret that the Ottawa Senators are kind of limping their way to Four Nations break. Injuries to two of their top three centres has the lineup looking pretty rough and on the heels of two regulation losses in Tampa Bay, it feels like the tank is close to empty.
But if they could just find a way to grab a point or two against the top team in the Eastern Conference, it would be a huge boost heading into the break.
The Ottawa Senators visit the Florida Panthers on Saturday night.
Game Day skate is underway in Florida and there’s no sign of Shane Pinto. Nick Jensen also isn’t out there.
We’ll assume same lineup for now though.
Highmore-Stutzle-Giroux
Tkachuk-Greig-Batherson
Perron-Ostapchuk-Amadio
Reinhardt-Gaudette
Sanderson-Zub
Chabot-Hamonic
Kleven-Matinpalo
Linus Ullmark is in the starter’s end at the AM skate.
Puck drop is scheduled for 7:08 PM in Sunrise. The game is available on Sportsnet One and CityTV. TSN1200 has the radio feed. Bort has them streams.
Wondering how these teams match up and think it’s time that we give the HEAD2HEAD table another chance? Yea me too.
| HEAD2HEAD |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 29-22-4 (62 pts) | 33-20-3 (69 pts) |
| Goals For | 2.84 (20th) | 3.27 (5th) |
| Goals Against | 2.73 (7th) | 2.93 (15th) |
| Power Play | 23.2% (11th) | 24.5% (9th) |
| Penalty Kill | 78.1% (20th) | 79.5% (16th) |
| Shots For | 29.8 (7th) | 31.6 (3rd) |
| Shots Against | 27.6 (11th) | 27.3 (10th) |
| Leading Scorers | Stutzle-55 pts Batherson-44 pts Tkachuk-43 pts Giroux-37 pts Sanderson-35 pts |
Reinhart-61 pts Tkachuk-54 pts Barkov-50 pts Verhaeghe-42 pts Lundell-35 pts |
| Starting Goalie | Linus Ullmark 12-8-2 2.41 GAA, .915 sv% |
Sergei Bobrovsky 22-12-2 2.71 GAA, .901 sv% |
