Game 48 preview: New York Islanders @ Ottawa Senators

A preview of the game between the Ottawa Senators and New York Islanders on 22 January 2016.

The Ottawa Senators will play at home for the first time since 9 January when they host the New York Islanders tonight. Ottawa lost 6-3 in New Jersey last night to finish a 2-3-0 road trip. The Islanders haven't played since Sunday when they lost 2-1 in a shootout at home against Vancouver.

Kyle Turris and Marc Methot remain out so the Senators will go the same lineup as last night. Andrew Hammond will start. Here are the lines from last night's game.

Michalek - Zibanejad - Ryan
Hoffman - Smith - Stone
Lazar - Pageau - Chiasson
Prince - McCormick - Neil

Borowiecki - Karlsson
Wiercioch - Ceci
Cowen - Wideman

Hammond (starter)
Anderson

Some notes for tonight:

  • Remember guys, it is a lot less frustrating to watch if you focus on whether Erik Karlsson gets a point. The Senators have won 22 times and lost 25 times. Karlsson has at least a point in 31 games and does not have a point in 16 games.
  • Karlsson is on pace for 70 assists this season which would be close to Jason Spezza's club record of 71 assists in 2005-2006. Spezza did that in only 68 games but it was also a season filled with power plays on a stacked Senators team. The last time a defenceman had 70 assists was Brian Leetch in 1995-1996.
  • With Turris' missing last night's game, Erik Karlsson is now the Senators player with the current longest consecutive games played streak. Since returning from his Achilles injury, he has played in 214 straight regular season games.
  • Bobby Ryan's low Corsica has him in danger of being a negative plus-minus player for the first time since his 23 game season in 2007-2008.
  • Mika Zibanejad has four points in his last three games.
  • The Senators came back from 2-0 down in the third period to beat the Islanders 3-2 on 5 December. Karlsson had three points including the overtime winner.
  • Max McCormick won all eight face-offs in the offensive zone last night.
  • Despite being sixth on the team in power play ice time, Mike Hoffman leads the team with six power play goals, including the one last night./

Here are some stats for the two teams tonight. All stats are from NHL.com except Corsi and Fenwick are from www.puckon.net. Note that Corsi is now adjusted for score as well as the venue and event type.

Category Ottawa New York
Player # Player #
Goals Mike Hoffman 21 Brock Nelson 18
Assists Erik Karlsson 40 Kyle Okposo 22
Points Erik Karlsson 49 Kyle Okposo 33
Shots Erik Karlsson 126 John Tavares 131
Average Ice time Erik Karlsson 28:43 Travis Hamonic 23:47

Category Ottawa New York
# Rank # Rank
Goals For 2.72 8th 2.67 12th
Goals Against 3.04 29th 2.42 9th
Event, Score and venue adjusted Corsi % 46.4% 27th 50.2% 15th
Event, Score and venue adjusted Fenwick % 45.8% 28th 50.2% 17th
Shots For 28.1 27th 30.2 12th
Shots Against 33.3 30th 30.3 20th

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