I’m baaaaaaaaaaaaack.
After approximately 784 Presidentes in the Dominican sun, it is time for me to attempt my transition back to reality.
It is a transition that is made somewhat easier by the fact that the Ottawa Senators have actually, dare I say it, looked kind of okay the last little while. The underlying numbers suggest a fairly significant improvement in the last couple weeks and that is slowly starting to translate into actual results. The Sens have racked up seven of a possible ten points over their last five games and have looked like a more structured and confident group in the process.
The Ottawa Senators look to build on those encouraging trends when they visit the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday night.
Tonight’s stop in Montreal is one of five games remaining for the Senators before a ten-day break to kick off the month of February. They return home for three straight after tonight against Boston, New York and Nashville before closing out the unofficial end of the first half with a a game against the Red Wings.
Here’s how Jacques Martin had them lined up at the morning skate…
Tkachuk-Norris-Giroux
Greig-Stützle-Batherson
Joseph-Pinto-Tarasenko
Kelly-Chartier-MacEwen
Sanderson-Zub
Chabot-Chychrun
Brannstrom-Bernard-Docker
Would expect Joonas Korpisalo to get the start in goal.
Puck drop is scheduled for 7:08 PM but will likely start closer to 8:00 PM following Montreal’s pre-game ceremony to honour pre-game ceremonies. TSN5, TSN2 and TSN1200 have the game covered and a number of friendly internet pirates have been lined up to provide streams a little closer to game time.
Wondering how these teams match-up but the memory of last week’s beatdown back in Ottawa just isn’t providing the level of statistical analysis and perfectly arranged columns and rows that you crave? The HEAD2HEAD table has you covered.
| HEAD2HEAD |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 17-24-1 (35 pts) | 19-20-7 (45 pts) |
| Goals For | 3.38 (10th) | 2.72 (28th) |
| Goals Against | 3.67 (30th) | 3.50 (27th) |
| Power Play | 15.6% (24th) | 19.3% (20th) |
| Penalty Kill | 72.7% (31st) | 72.9% (29th |
| Shots For | 32.9 (8th) | 28.2 (27th) |
| Shots Against | 30.9 (22nd) | 33.9 (29th) |
| Leading Scorers | Stutzle-43 pts Giroux-39 pts Tkachuk-37 pts Batherson-35 pts Tarasenko-31 pts |
Suzuki-38 pts Caufield-35 pts Matheson-32 pts Monahan-31 pts Slafkovsky-18 pts |
| Starting Goalie | Joonas Korpisalo 9-15-1 3.56 GAA, .887 sv% |
Jake Allen 5-8-2 3.49 GAA, .901 sv% |
