The Senators are coming off a successful road trip; over the last 15 days they’ve captured eight points out of a possible fourteen. They wrapped up the trip with a four-point regulation win over Montreal, which will pay dividends in the final standings during the fight for home-ice advantage—potentially against Montreal in the playoffs.

The Sens now start a three-game homestand against a conference rival who has the same number of points but has played two extra games this season. The New York Rangers are an excellent road team with a record of 11-4-1 this year. The Senators are going to have to be ready to play a full sixty minutes tonight. With such a tight race for the playoffs, every intra-conference game feels like a four-point game. Coming off a 2 a.m. arrival in Ottawa yesterday, the Sens might need an extra-long nap to reset their systems and get ready for this game.

In these situations, it would be best for Ottawa to play a simple game—looking for high-percentage plays and driving the game with strong defensive structure. Staying out of the box and playing disciplined hockey is key, especially with an inefficient penalty kill. The Senators could use some help from their power play to generate offense tonight. Brady Tkachuk got his first of the year and added a beautiful no-look pass to a wide-open, pinching Artem Zub. I’m sure Tkachuk will be firing on all cylinders trying to build on his current point totals. What a breath of fresh air Fabian Zetterlund’s play has been—a sigh of relief for Steve Staios and his decision to trade for the winger at last year’s deadline. He’s gone from snake-bitten to on fire, with four goals in his last seven games.

Zub and Lars Eller are out of the lineup tonight, likely recovering from some lingering bruises from the current condensed season. Spence will get an opportunity to start as a top-two defenseman, and he has certainly earned that role this season. His play has been driving the team from the back end, especially with how effectively he has been distributing the puck to the forwards through offensive-zone entries.

Dennis Gilbert 2.0 will make his season debut for the Sens, paired with Nick Jensen on the right side. The effective duo from last season’s playoffs, Tyler Kleven and Nikolas Matinpalo, will make up the second pairing, and I’m sure they will quickly rediscover their chemistry tonight.

The defense has been led by Jake Sanderson and his dominant play this season. He should be hearing his name called shortly for the U.S. Olympic team. His goal against Montreal was simply beautiful; he’s been carrying the puck to the net more this season and adding an extra element to the Sens’ attack. Kleven had a nice bounce-back game against the Habs—his passing was pinpoint, and he read the play extremely well, creating offensive opportunities for his forwards all night. These two left-side catalysts will be looked upon to bring the tempo and ignite the offense from the back end tonight.

The Sens have recalled Stephen Halliday from Belleville and will look to add more offensive ability to the lineup. I’d like to see Halliday given more opportunities to play every night. With such upside to his game and a long season still ahead, it might help to rest some of the more senior vets throughout the year.

With Linus Ullmark playing considerably more in December than at any other point in his career, Leevi Merilainen will be getting a chance to rebound from his recent struggles against the Blues and have a comeback game tonight. Earlier this week, goalie coach Justin Peters mentioned to the media that they will be looking to increase Leevi’s workload based on his performance. This is a show of confidence from the Sens, starting him against the Rangers, and Leevi will certainly be motivated to have a great game tonight at home.

Tonight’s game will be on TSN5, RDS, and TSN 1200.

Rangers projected lineup

Artemi Panarin — Mika Zibanejad — Alexis Lafreniere

J.T. Miller — Vincent Trocheck — Jonny Brodzinski

Will Cuylle — Noah Laba — Brett Berard

Conor Sheary — Sam Carrick — Taylor Raddysh

Vladislav Gavrikov — Braden Schneider

Carson Soucy — Will Borgen

Matthew Robertson — Scott Morrow

Igor Shesterkin

Spencer Martin

Scratched: Urho Vaakanainen, Brennan Othmann

Injured: Adam Fox (upper body), Jonathan Quick (lower body), Matt Rempe (upper body), Adam Edstrom (lower body)