219 - The number of goals Jason Spezza has scored in his Ottawa Senators career, the second-highest total (behind Daniel Alfredsson, who's scored 409G) in franchise history.

With Spezza's two-goal game on Monday afternoon, he surpassed Alexei Yashin (218G) on the all-time Senators scoring lead.

Spezza is also second, behind Alfredsson, in career assists and points with the franchise, although he'd surpassed Yashin in those measures long ago.

After Spezza, the next-highest-scoring current Senator is Chris Neil, whose 86 career goals in a Senators uniform put him at 11th all-time. Milan Michalek is quickly closing in on him, though, with 65G (which puts him at 15th all-time).

It's somewhat ironic that the main player acquired in the deal that sent Yashin to the New York Islanders has now bumped the much-maligned centreman out of the team's top two goal scorers of all time, but it will take a long time before another Senator bumps Yashin further down the goal-scoring list.

154 - Points scored by Ottawa Senators defencemen, which is the most any NHL team has received from the blue line so far this season.

Leading the way for the Senators is obviously Erik Karlsson, with 57P (12G, 45A). The team's point totals include 29G and 125A, with five defencemen with 14P or more: Karlsson, Sergei Gonchar (2G, 29A), Filip Kuba (5G, 17A), Chris Phillips (3G, 13A), and Jared Cowen (4G, 10A).

The next closest team to the Senators in points from the blue line are, unsurprisingly, the Vancouver Canucks, with 136P (30G, 106A) and led by Alexander Edler's 39-point (7G, 32A) season. Surprisingly high, though, are the Toronto Maple Leafs, who come in third with 132P, driven in large part by Dion Phaneuf's strong 34-point (9G, 25A) season. Rounding out the top five are the Nashville Predators (125P) and the Detroit Red Wings (122P).

At the bottom of the standings? The Minnesota Wild, who've received just 68P from their defenders. Not surprisingly, they're near the bottom of the league (29th overall) in goals scored this season. The New Jersey Devils have just 78P from the blue line, and the New York Islanders have 79P.

When Bryan Murray signed Sergei Gonchar the summer before last, he said it was because he wanted his defence to generate offence, not just prevent it. There's no doubt that Ottawa's blue line is providing more than their fair share of points.

17 - The takeaway-giveaway plus-minus of Milan Michalek, tops on the Ottawa Senators.

Michalek has 29 takeaways so far this season, which is nowhere near the top of the league--that honour belongs to Jonathan Toews, who has 79 takeaways this season--but is still a good number, especially considering he's committed just 12 giveaways. Erik Condra (+16), Zack Smith (+15), and Bobby Butler (+10) are the next three leaders in TkA-GvA on the team.

At the bottom of the standings are our three veteran defencemen: Filip Kuba is -32, Chris Phillips is -23, and Sergei Gonchar is -20. Although TkA-GvA certainly only paints part of the picture, but it goes a long way in explaining one very important (and dreadful) number: The Senators' league-worst 32.1 shots against per game average. It also reduces the amount of possession time for the forwards, and limits time in the offensive zone.

Recently, Sens head coach Paul MacLean acknowledged that the team is spending too much time in the defensive zone, and having too much trouble getting out of it. Limiting the giveaways committed by the team's veteran--and highest-paid--defencemen would be a good place to start in solving that problem.

32.96 - The percentage of shots Jason Spezza takes (not including blocked shots) that miss the net, among the worst on the Ottawa Senators team.

Spezza has had 179 shots on net this season, and he's taken an extra 88 shots that went wide.

For the sake of comparison, Daniel Alfredsson has missed the net on just 25.2 per cent of non-blocked shots taken; he's fired 139 shots at the net, and had just 47 that went wide. Kyle Turris is the best on the Sens at hitting the net with regularity: He's missed with just 17.02 per cent of non-blocked shots taken, missing the net 16 times compared to 78 that have been fired at the net.

Zack Smith (36.07, obviously doesn't give a crap about hitting the net), Matt Carkner (40 per cent, but he's only got 20 non-blocked shots this season), and Brian Lee (56.67 per cent, which hilariously means that Lee misses the net more often than he hits it) are the only regulars with a worse missed-shots percentage.

If Spezza hit the net with the Turris' regularity, and maintained his current shooting percentage (14 per cent), he'd have 31 goals this season, instead of the 25 he has in reality. That's simply an abstraction based on current numbers, but it underlines an undeniable truth: Shots only matter when they hit the net, and if you hit the net more, you score more.

Spezza's having a terrific season, of that there is no doubt. But when he finds himself in a shooting position, he needs to find a way to hit the net.

16 - The number of players aged 39 or more who've scored at least 20 goals in a season--including Daniel Alfredsson.

With Alfredsson's 20th goal last night against the Florida Panthers, he joins a list of such notable names as Gordie Howe, Jean Beliveau, Johnny Bucyk, Mark Messier, Brett Hull, and Ron Francis. Nine of the 16 players are in the Hockey Hall of Fame, and two are still active: Alfredsson and Teemu Selanne.

Alfredsson is on pace for 28 goals this season, but if he can score 30, he'd become just the fourth player aged 39 or older to score 30 or more goals. Selanne became the third just last season, and Howe and Bucyk are the other two.

The way things are going, Alfredsson might have another season in him after this one, too. If he can play as well as he is this season, the Senators will be begging him to come back for at least one more.

0.49 - Erik Karlsson's career assists-per-game average, sixth-highest all-time among Ottawa Senators players during their Sens careers, and tops among defencemen. Karlsson sits behind Cory Stillman (0.67), Jason Spezza (0.64), Daniel Alfredsson (0.59), Dany Heatley (0.57), and Alexei Yashin (0.54) in assists-per-game.

Karlsson's assists-per-game number, though, is climbing rapidly: This year, with 41 assists in just 57 games, he's scoring a mind-boggling 0.72 assists per game. It's his rookie season (21 assists in 60 games, or 0.35 per game) that's bringing down his average. He's not on pace to surpass Yashin this season (if he continues his current pace, he'll finish the year with 58 assists, which would put him at a career 0.51 A/GP average), but could very easily climb a spot or two by the end of next season.

It's unlikely anyone in sight will ever catch up to Stillman, though. His time in Ottawa was short, but productive: He had 16 assists in 24 games with the Sens in 2008. If Karlsson were to maintain his 0.72 A/GP pace from this season, it would take more than ten seasons to catch up to Stillman in career assists-per-game; 838 games, to be exact.

He'd better get on it.

46.2 - The Ottawa Senators' winning percentage in games where they outshoot their opponents, tied with the Edmonton Oilers for 21st in the NHL.

The Sens have outshot the opposition in 26 games so far this season, and have a 12-12-2 record in them. It's a sub-50 winning percentage, but exactly 50 per cent in terms of points-earned.

Thankfully for the sake of the Sens, they have a winning percentage of 50 when outshot by opponents: In 32 games where they're outshot, Ottawa's got a very impressive 16-10-6 record. That's a points-earned percentage of over 59. The Senators' winning-percentage-while-outshot is tied (with the Minnesota Wild and Dallas Stars) for 14 in the NHL.

Curiously, the Senators haven't finished a game with an equal number of shots as their opponents.

The obvious take-home from this goes against traditional hockey wisdom: The Senators need to take less shots. That's how statistics work, right?

48 - The number of games Kaspars Daugavins has played so far this season for the Ottawa Senators. That's as many as Filip Kuba and Chris Neil, and more than Brian Lee.

I shouldn't be surprised by the figure, but I am. Daugavins plays an under-the-radar style of hockey, so it's probably easy to forget just how long he's been in the Senators lineup. It's an impressive feat for a player who was rumoured to be close to returning to Latvia to play in the KHL this off-season, but decided to give North American pro hockey another chance. Looks like he made the right choice, as Paul MacLean seems to trust Daugavins with a regular shift on the fourth line and the penalty-kill.

In his 48 games, Daugavins has scored eight points (3G, 5A) and been assessed just 12 penalty minutes. Although it's been nine games since his last point, Rooster's ice time has increased over the last few games because of an increased energy level on that fourth line. He's stayed in the lineup while players like Bobby Butler and Zenon Konopka have been scratched.