With the Senators coming off a big reunion win with Linus Ullmark in net Saturday night against the Devils, they will look to continue their winning streak against another Metropolitan opponent tonight on the road. The Senators are riding a three-game winning streak, and they must continue it because the best five teams this month in the NHL are all in the Atlantic. It’s hard to climb the standings when everyone else is winning as well. They will have to hope for a drop-off from either Boston, Buffalo, or Montreal. Trailing by eight points is not ideal, but never say never — there are twenty-eight games left to be played, and anything can happen.

With Ullmark’s long-awaited return, we can hold hope that he can play at Saturday’s level for the rest of the way and shoulder the majority of the games as well. Only six of the next twenty-eight games are back-to-backs, so essentially, we should expect to see Ullmark in twenty-two of the next twenty-eight.

With Thomas Chabot’s early exit in Saturday’s game, where it looked like he re-injured a long-standing wrist issue, the defensive core will have to shoulder more minutes to make up for his absence if Chabot cannot suit up tonight. We can only hope it was a minor tweak and not a major injury for the Senators, as they collectively try to make a last-ditch push to clinch a playoff berth.

The Metropolitan Division’s second-place Pittsburgh Penguins have been on a six-game run and are looking to make it seven tonight at home against the Senators. One of the biggest surprises this year, many had written them off as a potential lottery team that would sell off assets and begin a rebuild. There were even early rumors of a Sidney Crosby trade to Montreal. Well, how things have changed. The Penguins are firmly in control of their own destiny this season, sitting six points up with a game in hand on Columbus, who currently sit ninth.

The Senators will have their work cut out for them as they meet Crosby tonight, who is riding a seven-point streak with two goals and five assists and looking in top form with the Olympics just ten days away.

To answer Crosby’s production, the Sens captain has matched Crosby’s exact totals, needing only the last three games to do so. With two goals and five assists, the Senators will lean on their captain to lead the way toward the playoffs, one win at a time. To complement Brady Tkachuk’s production, Tim Stützle has scored six points in his last four games, with three goals and three assists. Stützle has been a much-needed catalyst for this group, consistently producing and creating scoring chances for his linemates. The Senators will also have to watch out for Anthony Mantha, who has been on a hot streak over his last five games with five goals and three assists.

It’s going to be a close game tonight. Previously, the Sens won the first matchup easily, 4–0 back in December — Ullmark’s only shutout of the season so far. Ullmark and the Senators will be eager to replicate another strong performance tonight. These two teams will meet again at the end of March for their final installment of the regular season. We can hope that by then, the Senators are playing to improve their playoff positioning and not still trying to get into the playoffs.

You can watch tonight’s game on TSN5 and TVA Sports at 7 p.m.

Senators projected lineup

Drake Batherson — Tim Stutzle — Claude Giroux

Brady Tkachuk — Dylan Cozens — Ridly Greig

Nick Cousins — Shane Pinto — Michael Amadio

Stephen Halliday — Lars Eller — Fabian Zetterlund

Jake Sanderson — Artem Zub

Thomas Chabot — Jordan Spence

Tyler Kleven — Nick Jensen

Linus Ullmark

James Reimer

Scratched: Kurtis MacDermid, Nikolas Matinpalo

Injured: David Perron (sports hernia)

Penguins projected lineup

Rickard Rakell — Sidney Crosby — Justin Brazeau

Egor Chinakhov — Tommy Novak — Evgeni Malkin

Rutger McGroarty — Ben Kindel — Anthony Mantha

Connor Dewar — Blake Lizotte — Noel Acciari

Parker Wotherspoon — Erik Karlsson

Brett Kulak — Ryan Shea

Ilya Solovyov — Connor Clifton

Arturs Silovs

Stuart Skinner

Scratched: Kevin Hayes

Injured: Kris Letang (foot fracture), Jack St. Ivany (hand surgery), Filip Hallander (blood clot), Ryan Graves (lower body), Caleb Jones (lower body)

Suspended: Bryan Rust