Game 50 preview: Buffalo Sabres @ Ottawa Senators

A preview of the game between the Ottawa Senators and Buffalo Sabres on 26 January 2016.

Despite a strong performance, Erik Karlsson failed to pick up any points in Sunday's game which the Senators won 3-0 in the end. Karlsson will look to rebound in tonight's game against the Buffalo Sabres, his last before the All-Star game.

As far as his teammates are concerned, Kyle Turris is still out while Marc Methot is a game time decision. Craig Anderson will start. Here are the lines from Sylvain St-Laurent.

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

Borowiecki - Karlsson
Wiercioch - Ceci
Cowen - Wideman

Anderson (starter)
Hammond

Some notes for today:

  • Karlsson is the only Senator to go to the All-Star game. He well likely have more fun in the light hearted 3-on-3 there than the exhausting ones in the regular season.
  • The Sabres played last night and lost 6-3 to the Rangers in New York.
  • Former Senator Robin Lehner got injured 28 minutes into the season opener against Ottawa. Tonight will be his fourth game back since returning from injury.
  • Bobby Ryan is on a five-game points streak with four goals and two assists in that span. He is on pace to match his career high of 71 points.
  • Mark Borowiecki was an alternate captain on Sunday and leadershipped the Senators to glorious victory.
  • Mike Hoffman has scored two goals in the last three games while averaging five shots on goal per game.
  • The Senators are three points out of a playoff spot but also only another additional three points from having home ice in the first round. There is still plenty of time to turn things around if they could just play better.
  • Ottawa has gone 2-3-0 at home in their last five home games after winning the five home games before that.
  • Jack Eichel has a very impressive 32 points in 49 games as a rookie. He is 24th in the league in shots on goal.
  • That performance by the Senators on Sunday really was a dominating one wasn't it? Did not see that coming.
  • Mika Zibanejad is on pace for 51 points as a 22-year old./

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 Buffalo
Player # Player #
Goals Mike Hoffman 22 Ryan O'Reilly 17
Assists Erik Karlsson 41 Ryan O'Reilly 23
Points Erik Karlsson 51 Ryan O'Reilly 40
Shots Erik Karlsson 136 Evander Kane 152
Average Ice time Erik Karlsson 28:48 Rasmus Ristolainen 25:07

Category Ottawa Buffalo
# Rank # Rank
Goals For 2.71 8th 2.24 28th
Goals Against 3.02 28th 2.67 19th
Event, Score and venue adjusted Corsi % 46.5% 27th 45.2% 29th
Event, Score and venue adjusted Fenwick % 45.9% 29th 44.8% 30th
Shots For 28.2 27th 29.4 16th
Shots Against 33.3 30th 30.4 21st

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