I really don’t need to stress the implications of this game or any of Ottawa’s remaining nine games as the Senators find themselves in the wild card melee with no fewer than five teams competing for two spots in the eastern conference. On paper I see no reason why Ottawa can’t pull this off, and I realize that seems like asking for a lot given all of the injuries the Senators have had to navigate down the stretch. Like I said in the last preview, at least the Sens have made this season memorable in a good way and I can pivot from my prior assumptions that this team required a complete overhaul in the summer. The Ottawa Senators have most of the pieces in place. They continue to head in the right direction. Sometimes it just takes longer than we anticipate to arrive at the destination.
The Panthers meanwhile have had one of those textbook hangover seasons that one comes to expect after so much playoff hockey for a core of players who play a pretty intense style of hockey. With the trade deadline behind us and a lot of Florida’s regulars on the injured reserve for the remainder of the season, Florida has just two regulation wins in their last ten games, including a three-game losing streak entering tonight’s contest. Florida leads the season series 2-0 by a combined score of 9-4 with wins in both Sunrise and Ottawa. Ottawa hosts Florida one more time April 9th. I also want to note that as someone who wrote about both Cole Reinhart and Donovan Sebrango as Senators prospects, it does seem cool that they have found full-time jobs in the NHL, despite the conflict of interest.
I have no idea what to expect in terms of extra-curricular activities. On the one hand, Florida shouldn’t play with that much emotion given the fact they have nothing to play for other than draft position but also I imagine that certain Panthers would love to sabotage Ottawa’s already dubious playoff positioning.
Game Notes:Most of us will instinctively look at Florida’s injury report and their likely fatigue as reasons for such pronounced overall regression this season. Whether the goaltending belongs in that same category or represents a coincidence is totally up to you. Either way, lack of saves has contributed to their collective disappointment after several dominant campaigns.Ottawa and Florida have similar offences in terms of expected goals at five-on-five with the slightest advantage to the Sens (2.79 xGF/60) over the Cats (2.75).On defence at five-on-five, Ottawa (2.31 xGA/60) has a more decided advantage over Florida (2.70), with both teams having unsavoury save percentages at even strength as noted.Unsurprisingly for a team with such a talented roster (albeit mostly when healthy) the Panthers have a formidable powerplay (9.76 xGF/60) compared to Ottawa’s more pedestrian powerplay results (8.45).For a team removed from contention, the Panthers do have a lot of good statistics going for them. Their penalty kill (7.28 xGA/60) rivals Ottawa’s (7.03) with significant injuries and poor goaltending results noted for both teams.All stats courtesy of naturalstattrick
Injuries Ottawa: Thomas Chabot, Dennis Gilbert, Nick Jensen, Jake Sanderson
Injuries Florida: Uvis Balinskis, Aleksander Barkov, Sam Bennett, Jonah Gadjovich, Anton Lundell, Brad Marchand, Niko Mikkola, Sam Reinhart, Evan Rodrigues, Cole Schwindt
Where to watch/listen: RDS2, TSN5, TSN1200 @ 7PM EST
Lines from Last Game:
Ottawa
Giroux – Stützle – Batherson
Tkachuk – Cozens – Greig
Cousins – Pinto – Amadio
Foegele – Eller – Zetterlund
Kleven – Zub
Spence – Yakemchuk
Matinpalo – Thomson
Florida
Tkachuk – Luostarinen – Verhaeghe
Greer – Boqvist – Samoskevich
Gregor – Nosek – Foote
Reinhart – Kunin – Hinostroza
Forsling – Ekblad
Kulikov – Jones
Sebrango – Benning