Game 34 preview: Anaheim Ducks @ Ottawa Senators

A preview of the game between the Ottawa Senators and the Anaheim Ducks on 22 December 2016.

The Ottawa Senators will welcome back one of their own tonight as Jakob Silfverberg returns to Ottawa with his Anaheim Ducks for tonight's emotionally charged game. Since beating Ottawa 5-1 in Anaheim, the Ducks have been on the road and tonight will be the sixth and final game of their road trip. The Senators are coming off an excellent performance in Tuesday's 4-3 win over Chicago and have won three in a row after dropping three in a row.

The Senators might be without Mark Stone who missed practice this morning due to being sick. Here are the expected lines if Stone plays, otherwise there will likely be seven defencemen.

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

Methot - Karlsson
Phaneuf - Wideman
Borowiecki - Ceci

Condon (starter)
O'Connor

Some notes for tonight:

  • Bobby Ryan now has a goal in four straight games after three goals in his first 24 games.
  • Cody Ceci is now up to 57 shots without a goal this season.
  • Ryan Dzingel saw his four-game points streak end on Tuesday in Chicago.
  • The Senators have nine away wins in 15 games this season. The club record for away wins was 24 back in 2002-2003. They are currently on pace for 24.6 away wins this season. Only the Rangers and Lumbus have won a higher percentage of away games this season.
  • The Ducks on the other hand have won just seven times in 19 away games this season.
  • Dating back to last season, Curtis Lazar does not have a point in 21 straight games.
  • The Kelly-Pyatt line has to be one of the worst in the league doesn't it?
  • The Ducks had only 13 shots in Tuesday's loss to Montréal.
  • The Senators have lowered their shots allowed per game by 1.9 compared to last season.
  • The Ducks have scored on 24.3% of their power plays which is the second highest conversion rate in the NHL.
  • After Tuesday's win, Ottawa is now 10-2-3 in one-goal games.
  • The Senators are 10-1-1 when scoring the first goal. They also have the second most wins in the NHL when allowing the first goal with a record of 9-10-2.
  • Our friend Silfverberg is second on the Ducks with 96 shots on goal. Corey Perry leads them with 97 shots./

Here are some stats for the two teams tonight. All stats are from NHL.com except Corsi and Fenwick are from www.puckon.net.

Category Ottawa Anaheim
Player # Player #
Goals Kyle Turris 12 Rickard Rakell 14
Assists Erik Karlsson 24

Ryan Getzlaf

24
Points Erik Karlsson 31 Ryan Getzlaf 28
Shots Mike Hoffman 90 Corey Perry 97
Average Ice time Erik Karlsson 26:59 Cam Fowler 24:13

Category Ottawa Anaheim
# Rank # Rank
Goals For 2.52 19th 2.76 13th
Goals Against 2.64 12th 2.82 18th
Event, Score and venue adjusted Corsi % 46.4% 25th 48.9% 19th
Event, Score and venue adjusted Fenwick % 47.2% 23rd 48.9% 19th
Shots For 29.1 20th 29.4 17th
Shots Against 30.9 22nd 29.3 8th

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