Game 81 preview: New York Rangers @ Ottawa Senators

The Rangers come to town locked into their playoff position: they will face the Canadiens on the road in Game 1 of the playoffs. The Senators are assured of their playoff spot, but their seeding is anything but decided yet. That means the Sens will have lots to play for in this game, while the Rags may take the chance to rest some key players. That being said, Henrik Lundqvist is still their confirmed starter, so it won’t all be easy. Not much has been said about today’s game, so my guess is the lineup will be very similar to the one that won against the Bruins on Thursday:

Here are some thoughts on tonight’s game:

• Erik Karlsson, Marc Methot, and Zack Smith all seem to be good to go come playoff time, they’re just resting while the games aren’t as important
• Karlsson will finish as the points leader on this team for the fourth season in a row, illustrating both how great he’s and how much this team has been offence-by-committee since he’s been around
• Sitting out also means Karlsson won’t catch Brent Burns in points, likely meaning EK finishes second in Norris voting for the second year in a row
• The team goal-scoring race could go down to the wire, with Kyle Turris at 27 and Mike Hoffman at 25. Mark Stone is also at 22, and hasn’t scored a goal in 15 games (26 shots in that span) so he is due for some good luck
• This will be Mika Zibanejad’s first game in Ottawa since he was traded. I’ve been happy to see him succeed in New York, just hopefully not this game
• Will Chris Neil play? It could be his last chance to play before the home crowd now that he’s come off the IR. Personally I’d like to see Boucher do it.
• Overall I’d say the first year of #TheSystem has been a success. May it burn bright into the playoffs

Here are some team and player stats. All stats via NHL.com except Corsi and Fenwick, from Natural Stat Trick: