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<\/a>Goaltending has been a major issue for Ottawa and huge reason that they underperformed in the first half of the season. That led the club to add 38-year old James Reimer as a free agent in a desperation move to patch things up. Results are mixed (that 2.32 GAA will sure take care of business) and he\u2019s been a moderate upgrade over Leevi Merilainen who couldn\u2019t keep the puck out of the net this season.Ullmark has been all over the place but is starting to get the arrow pointed in the right direction. He\u2019s 9-2-2 with a .902 save% and 2.31 GAA since the turn of the calendar year, compared to being 14-8-5 with a .881 save% and 2.95 GAA in the 2025 portion of the 2025-26 season. Even more recently, Ullmark has a .908% and 2.20 GAA in his last six outings. Nothing dominant but certainly an improvement from the start of the year and the Sens are finding ways to keep the goals against down.Claude Giroux will keep on annoying the Penguins until he retires. Giroux has 12 points (2G+10A) in eight career games against Pittsburgh as a member of the Senators, including the go-ahead goal with 5:08 to play in the third period last game.Tim Stutzle usually confounds the Pens as well (three points in the first two meetings this season) but by his standards he\u2019s been quiet lately with just three points (2G+1A) in his last seven games.<\/p>\nKey Matchup: A strong test for the Penguin defense<\/p>\n
The Senators have been a solid team process-wise, they generate a lot of shot attempts, which helps on the other end where they are also No. 1 in the league in xGA due to staying out of their own end and keeping puck control. They also have shown an ability to finish well on all these shots and have a decent power play.<\/p>\n Ottawa is 10-2-2 since the Olympic break, outscoring their opponents on aggregate by a 48-32 margin. The split between shots per game (6th in NHL at a 30.9 average) to shots allowed (2nd in NHL at 22.1) is very impressive.<\/p>\n On the other side, the Penguins have had their share of significant struggles at limiting the opposition recently. Coach Dan Muse summed up the issues <\/a>after the 6-2 loss to Colorado:<\/p>\n \u201cThe quality is too high,\u201d Muse said of opposing scoring chances lately. \u201cIt\u2019s just too loud.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not chances where it\u2019s to the outside,\u201d Muse said. \u201cIt\u2019s plays into the slot. Guys are open there. Some of them are odd-man rushes, whether it\u2019s a breakaway, or some of the other ones that we\u2019re giving. We\u2019ve got to do a better job there in terms of cleaning that up.\u201d<\/p>\n That better job is going to have to start tonight against a very capable opponent who plays in an uptempo style that has given them fits in recent matchups.<\/p>\n Rickard Rakell – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust<\/p>\n Egor Chinakhov – Tommy Novak – Anthony Mantha*<\/p>\n Ville Koivunen – Ben Kindel – Justin Brazeau<\/p>\n Elmer Soderblom – Connor Dewar – Noel Acciari<\/p>\n Parker Wotherspoon \/ Erik Karlsson<\/p>\n Ryan Shea \/ Connor Clifton<\/p>\n Goalies: Stuart Skinner and Arturs Silovs<\/p>\n Potential Scratches: Evgeni Malkin (injured), Ilya Solovyov, Blake Lizotte (injured), Kevin Hayes, Ryan Graves<\/p>\n IR: Filip Hallander, Jack St. Ivany<\/p>\n No sign of Malkin on the ice for the Pens at practice yesterday, which afterwards Muse confirmed Malkin won\u2019t travel<\/a> with the team on their quick trip to Ottawa. Even worse Mantha was out with a day-to-day injury, but will at least be with the team and seemingly have a chance to play today.Mantha\u2019s performance bonus adds an additional $250,000<\/a> for every 10-games played. He hasn\u2019t missed a game all season so far. He could only miss two games over the course of the year to still pick up the full bonus money by getting to 80 total games, so here\u2019s betting whatever injury he has will be one that he won\u2019t let keep him out of the lineup for too long, or if it does you know it will be painful in more ways than one if Mantha has to be out for three games over the rest of the season. Whether or not that first absence will happen tonight remains to be seen, Kevin Hayes took Mantha\u2019s spot in practice yesterday in perhaps a hopeful sign that lines weren\u2019t disrupted for early plans to adjust.In the FWIW category, Pens PR points out that Stuart Skinner has a 6-1-0 record in seven games played against Ottawa and he has a .903 save percentage and 2.71 goals against average. Also, somewhat interestingly, Erik Karlsson has no goals and only seven points in 15 career games against the Ottawa franchise where he played from 2009-18.<\/p>\n Crosby nearing 1,100 assists<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n