The Vegas Golden Knights have 25 wins.
The Ottawa Senators have 23 wins.
The Vegas Golden Knights sit at the top of the Pacific Division with 62 points.
The Ottawa Senators sit at the bottom of the Atlantic Division with 53 points.
What’s the big deal? Vegas has twelve overtime losses, so if you needed another reason to want the NHL to change their points system, there you have it.
Sigh.
Sens lines
Here’s a reminder of how the Sens lined up against Carolina. As of writing, there have not been any changes announced:
Our projected lines tonight against Carolina 💪#GoSensGo pic.twitter.com/nZ5Y9fxLj3
— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) January 24, 2026
Golden Knights lines
Here’s how Vegas lined up last time out against Toronto. We expect similar combinations, with a potential swap in goal:
VGK vs. Toronto
Barbashev – Eichel – Stone
Marner – Hertl – Dorofeyev
Rondbjerg – Smith – Kolesar
Bowman – Laczynski – Holtz
Lauzon – Theodore
Hanifin – Andersson
Hutton – Korczak
Hill
— Ryan The Hockey Guy (@RyanHockeyGuy) January 23, 2026
Game notesVegas has been another team with good shot metrics and scoring chance numbers, but have been let down by their goaltending for most of the season. Their starter, Akira Schmid, has a 0.896% in 26 games – just below league-average – but all three of their backups are hovering around 0.871%. That’s Reimer level. A key difference between Vegas and Ottawa? Special teams, where the Golden Knights rank 5th and 11th and could likely be higher given their scoring chance metrics at both states of play. They can run a 5-forward PP unit of Stone, Marner, Dorofeyev, Hertl, and Eichel, even though Theodore or Hanifin still get decent minutes at the point. Their penalty kill – like most good penalty kills – are by committee. Ex-Sens star Mark Stone is on a 14 game point streak, and ranks fourth in the NHL with a 1.53 points-per-game. I saw some people criticizing his inclusion on the Canadian Olympic Team and will never understand it – he’s one of the league’s premier two-way forwards, and in another universe, Ottawa’s captain. The way to beat Vegas is to survive their top two lines and feast on their bottom-six with home matchups. I’m looking for a big game from Shane Pinto, who’s been quite disappointing since returning from injury. He received his contract because he’s meant to be one of the league’s best at shutting down a top line and contributing some offence in transition… the Sens need much more of that energy. The main lineup news this morning surrounds the goaltending: Hunter Shepard is back in Belleville, with Reimer and Søgaard listed as the two goaltenders. I imagine that means that Ullmark will get some of the next six games before the Olympic break.
It’s a 5:00pm ET start, and you can catch this evening’s game on TSN5 or RDS2 in Canada. If you’re going to the game, take extra precaution – the snow will be there when you’re leaving tonight.
Statistics
Game 52SenatorsGolden Knights
Category#Rank#Rank
Goals/GP3.2212th3.384th
Goals against/GP3.3928th2.9814th
Shots/GP28.414th29.18th
Shots against/GP25.13rd24.72nd
Powerplay %22.910th26.35th
Penalty Kill %71.831st80.311th
Corsi % (5v5 SVA)53.075th50.4815th
xGF% (5v5 SVA)53.965th51.559th
SenatorsGolden Knights
CategoryPlayer#Player#
GoalsStützle23Dorofeyev22
AssistsSanderson31Eichel42
PointsStützle52Eichel61
ShotsStützle129Eichel164
TOI/GPSanderson25:08Theodore23:46