Game 20 Preview: Ottawa Senators @ Washington Capitals

It’s a Sens game day! Continuing their three-game road trip through the Metropolitan division, they’ll be facing the Washington Capitals who for once are not the league’s top seed. Instead, both the Capitals and Senators are in bubble spots, with Ottawa one point behind with three games in hand.

Thomas Chabot was called up on Monday to replace the injured Mark Borowiecki, and with Chris Wideman out long term as well, Ottawa’s defensive depth has started to become thin. Chabot will get a chance to play tonight as Boucher rolls eleven forwards and seven defencemen, with DiDomenico being scratched at the exact wrong moment.

Craig Anderson has also been confirmed as tonight’s starting goaltender.

Here’s the expected lineup:

Dzingel - Brassard - Stone
Pyatt - Duchene - Ryan
Hoffman - Pageau - Burrows
Paul - Thompson

Claesson - Karlsson
Phaneuf - Ceci
Oduya - Harpur - Chabot

Anderson (starter)
Condon

Here are some notes:

• Mark Stone has as many goals this season as Alex Ovechkin. Let that sink in for a second.
• Tonight should be a good litmus test to see how much Guy Boucher trusts his rookies. Chabot’s offensive instincts are likely one of the best on the Sens’ d-corps, although he may end up receiving only a small handful of minutes from the risk-averse Boucher.
• The Sens claimed Gabriel Dumont off waivers today, although he won’t be playing tonight. He’ll join the team for their game this Friday in Columbus.
• Scratching DiDomenico over Paul is an interesting choice. Boucher wants to get a long look to see what the Sens have in Paul as a prospect, and potential roster player.
• One more interesting tidbit on Paul: he was one game away from losing his rookie status in 2015-16, by playing 24 games (one less than the qualification). Four more games this season would qualify him as a veteran going forward.
• Matt Duchene is still looking for his first point, although it’s not been at a shortage of opportunities. He’s had more high danger chances with Ottawa than he’s had with Colorado this season, in less than half the amount of games. I’m calling a hat trick tonight./

Here are some stats, from NHL.com and Natural Stat Trick:

Team Stats

Player Stats