Game 21 preview: Carolina Hurricanes @ Ottawa Senators

The Ottawa Senators will look to tie a season high with their third straight win when they host the Carolina Hurricanes tonight. Ottawa is coming off a pair of wins over the Canadiens and the Bruins, while the Hurricanes had a five-game winning streak end on Thursday, also against the Habs.

The Senators are not expected to make any changes to the lineup in what will be Erik Karlsson's 500th career game. Here are the lines and pairings from the Senators twitter account.

Dzingel - Turris - Ryan
Hoffman - Brassard - Stone
Smith - Pageau - Pyatt
Kelly - Lazar - Neil

Methot - Karlsson
Phaneuf - Ceci
Borowiecki - Wideman

Anderson (starter)
Condon

Some notes for tonight:

• Karlsson has 401 points in 499 career games. He is the Senators all-time leader for goals by a defenceman and second in assists and points.
• A win tonight would move Ottawa past Tampa Bay into second place in the Atlantic Division.
• Good guy Mike Hoffman has four points and eight shots on goals over the last two games.
• Good guy Mark Stone has four points but only three shots on goal over the last two games.
• Erik Karlsson isn't quite putting up the offensive totals from last year, or having the same shot differentials but hey he is playing on the penalty kill andleads the NHL in blocked shots. That's how you impress the NHL media I guess.
• Ottawa's offensive output has been bizarre. They started with 17 goals in four games, then 21 in 14 games and now seven goals in the last two.
• The Senators are among the league leaders in shots on goal so you would expect them to start scoring more. Unfortunately they are returning to the familiar place of being near the bottom of the league in shots allowed as well.
• The Senators have six power play goals this season, which is 30th in the NHL. Their 30 goals at 5-on-5 are also ranked 27th.
• Ottawa is ranked 18th in 5-on-5 goals allowed with 38. They have allowed the sixth fewest goals while on the penalty kill though.
• The Senators are 4-1-0 when they scored first and 8-6-1 when they allowed the first goal. That also means that the Senators have scored the first goal just five teams in 20 games.
• Kyle Turris is on pace for 37 goals. He has never scored more than 26. It is worth noting that he is shooting 22% for the season./