Game 22 Preview: New York Islanders @ Ottawa Senators

Remember the last time the Sens won? It’s been two weeks since their last victory, and they hope to break the skid tonight as they face the New York Islanders at home. The Isles, meanwhile, have the hot hand defeating the Philadelphia Flyers twice in their home-and-home series.

Although Ottawa may be tired after playing last night, New York is in the same position. While Ottawa’s faced some recent injury trouble, losing out on Smith, Wideman and Borowiecki, New York is looking at a clean bill of health.

Lineup decisions have yet to be announced, although there may be a shakeup in store. Fredrik Claesson was surprisingly the healthy scratch, although the losing streak may prompt Boucher to put him back in instead of Harpur or Oduya. For now, here are yesterday’s line combos:

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

Harpur - Ceci
Phaneuf - Karlsson
Oduya - Chabot

Condon (starter)
Anderson

Here are some notes:

• Matt Duchene only played 30 seconds more at 5v5 than Nate Thompson. No wonder he’s still looking for his first point.
• That line of Hoffman-Duchene-Dzingel is probably one of the fastest in the league, and should probably be ahead the other two. Pyatt and Burrows in the top six isn’t ideal.
• I wasn’t able to watch last night’s game, although Gabriel Dumont led the team with a 60.36% Corsi percentage in his Sens debut. He also played 1:34 on the penalty kill.
• Speaking of special teams, Ottawa’s failed to score on their last seventeen straight power play opportunities. Meanwhile, Guy Boucher was quoted after yesterday’s game saying that the powerplay “looked terrific”. Now in the bottom ten on conversion rate with the third lowest expected goals per 60 minutes at 5v4, I think he might want to re-assess his strategy.
• The Islanders have been strongly benefitting from their rookies this season, as Mathew Barzal’s 22 points is tied for the rookie scoring lead with Brock Boeser. Josh Ho-Sang and Ryan Pulock have also been of great help./

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

Team Stats

Player Stats