Game 5 Preview: Ottawa Senators @ Edmonton Oilers

The Ottawa Senators will complete their west coast road trip this evening visiting the Edmonton Oilers. Ottawa’s coming in on a two-game winning streak, while the Oilers have lost their last two to the to the Jets and Canucks.

There was no morning skate today, as the Senators were just coming off their 6-0 win from last night. Mike Condon will make his season debut, giving Craig Anderson a break after the first four games. Christian Jaros was also sent back to the AHL this morning, so it appears either Johnny Oduya or Ben Harpur is close to returning (more likely the former). If neither are good to go, it’s likely that one of Logan Brown or Alex Formenton will get the call. Assuming the rest of the line combos stay the same, here’s the projected lineup:

A few notes ahead of tonight’s game:

• Mike Condon makes his first appearance of the season. Fresh on a new three year, $7.2 million deal, hopefully he can live up to the expectations. His pre-season didn’t go quite as planned, allowing 16 goals on only 91 shots. Keep in mind with all statistics at this point that it’s a small sample size.
• Thomas Chabot scored the first point of his NHL career last night - let’s see if he can get his first NHL goal. With the Sens’ health starting to return, it remains to be seen whether his play so far has made him a lock for the team or whether he’ll be sent back to Belleville.
• Ottawa finally broke through on the power play yesterday, and meanwhile, the penalty kill is still perfect (12 for 12).
• After Mark Stone, Ottawa’s goal scoring race is a four-way tie between Derick Brassard, Ryan Dzingel, Cody Ceci and Chris Wideman. Last year’s leader, Kyle Turris, is still looking for his first of the season.
• Like Ottawa, Edmonton is also down a few key players with injuries. Most notably is Leon Draisaitl who was reported yesterday to have concussion issues on top of his sore eye, although nothing’s been confirmed yet. Andrej Sekera (knee) and Drake Caggiula (unknown) will also not play.
• Connection of the Game: 2015-16 saw both the Sens and Oilers miss the playoffs before finding success the year after. That prompted a handful of players to be sent to the World Championships following the regular season, forming the connection. Ottawa sent Mark Stone and Cody Ceci, while Edmonton sent Connor McDavid and Taylor Hall (later traded). Derick Brassard, who at the time was still on the New York Rangers was also there, leading the team in points on route to their gold medal. In one of their group stage games against France, Mark Stone’s goal was assisted by both Hall and McDavid.

Here are some stats for the two teams, from Natural Stat Trick: