As if a division rivalry game on the last day before the holiday break wasn\u2019t enough, Tuesday\u2019s matchup between the Ottawa Senators and Buffalo Sabres comes packed with oodles of storylines and intrigue.<\/p>\n
The Sabres enter having won six straight games, while the Senators enter having won four straight. Though the teams have played three times since making a blockbuster trade last March, Tuesday will mark the first time that former Senator Josh Norris will be in the lineup on the opposing side.<\/p>\n
Dylan Cozens, who the Senators received in return for Norris along with a second-round draft pick in 2026, is coming off one of his best performances of the season. Cozens scored once and added two assists in Sunday\u2019s win over Boston and has 10 points in his last seven games overall.<\/p>\n
Norris, who has been plagued by injuries the last handful of seasons, has five goals and seven assists in 12 games since joining the Sabres.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, I think obviously there\u2019s a little bit of competition,\u201d answered Cozens when asked if there\u2019s any comparison after being traded for a player.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, he\u2019s a great player, and yeah, I think you want to do good for yourself, you want to do good for the team that traded for you,\u201d said the centre. \u201cThe biggest thing is that, and doing well for the team that traded for me and believed in me, so that\u2019s the main focus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lately in Ottawa, Cozens is finding chemistry centring Drake Batherson and David Perron on the second line. \u201cYeah, I just think we\u2019re doing a lot of good things low,\u201d said Cozens.<\/p>\n
\u201cBelow the goal line, getting it to the net, getting it around the net, and just working them low and reloading hard. Yeah, just getting greasy goals around the net and keeping that going.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cozens is leading the team in hits after registering six on Sunday, becoming the first player on the team to reach 100 on the season. \u201cI think that\u2019s a big part of my game,\u201d said Cozens.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think when I get involved physically, the rest of my game kind of follows with that. So it\u2019s a part of my identity, it\u2019s a part of the player I want to be, I think that\u2019s a big part of my game.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it has, I think it\u2019s bled through our team, to be honest,\u201d said Travis Green about Cozens developing a cycle-heavy game.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I think that is a big part of his game. You know, he\u2019s a big body, skates well, protects the puck well, he\u2019s built for certain areas of the rink, certain types of game. He\u2019s got a good shot. And he\u2019s still young, he\u2019s still learning lots of different parts of his game and I\u2019ve seen progression in not just his offensive game, but still his defensive game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since joining Ottawa, the 24-year-old is playing at a 23 goal, 40 assist 82-game pace. He ranks second on the team with 81 shots this season, and first in both power play goals (six) and points (15).<\/p>\n
Cozens has also improved in the faceoff circle, winning 54.9 per cent of his draws this season when he had previously been above 50 per cent just once (last season). Only Claude Giroux, who leads the league in that department among qualifiers, has won more draws than Cozens on the team this year.<\/p>\n
After six meetings, the \u2018Workhorse from Whitehorse\u2019 says it\u2019s no longer as weird playing his former team \u2014 unlike during his first game last March, when he says he \u201cdidn\u2019t look at anyone, didn\u2019t talk to anyone, just tried to pretend that I didn\u2019t know anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a big game, obviously with where we are in the standings, where everyone is in the standings,\u201d said Cozens. \u201cYou want to enjoy your break, and I think I\u2019ll enjoy it a lot more if we get the win tonight, especially playing against Buffalo, so it\u2019s a big one for us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As if a division rivalry game on the last day before the holiday break wasn\u2019t enough, Tuesday\u2019s matchup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5104],"tags":[5,4,72,25,5157,73],"class_list":{"0":"post-371616","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ottawa-senators","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-nhl","10":"tag-ottawa","11":"tag-ottawa-senators","12":"tag-ottawasenators","13":"tag-senators"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115770592113918491","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}