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Game 38 Preview: Ottawa Senators @ New York Islanders

The Sens’ goalie tandem takes a hit with Craig Anderson’s injury.

Ottawa Senators v New York Islanders Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

Back and rested following their week-long Christmas break, the Ottawa Senators travelled to Brooklyn for the first half of this weekend’s back-to-back. They’ve lost their last two, while the New York Islanders have won four of their last five, trying to claw themselves into a wild card spot.

Roster Notes

A couple new injuries have plagued the Sens, with Justin Falk and Craig Anderson both out with a concussion. Despite Falk’s injury, Boucher will still roll with seven defencemen, with Max Lajoie returning to injury and Christian Jaros being removed from the healthy scratch list.

The player scratched: Tom Pyatt. Count me surprised, but it looks like his healthy scratch earlier this month was not a fluke. It helps that Nick Paul’s play has grown on Boucher since the start of the season, although the team is significantly better with Pyatt out of the lineup.

Anderson’s injury is much more concerning, and hopefully we can find out the severity and timeline soon. Mike McKenna will be Ottawa’s starter tonight, and there may even be a chance he plays tomorrow, with rookie Marcus Hogberg sitting on the bench.

For some more positive injury news, Jean-Gabriel Pageau is no longer wearing a no-contact jersey during practice. His timeline for return is still unknown, although he’s getting closer.

The Islanders are also suffering a few injuries, with Jordan Eberle, Andrew Ladd, Thomas Hickey and Cal Clutterbuck out of their lineup. Robin Lehner will be in the opposite net.

Here’s Ottawa’s projected lineup, via TSN 1200:

Tkachuk - White - Stone
Smith - Duchene - Dzingel
Boedker - Tierney - Ryan
Paul - Paajarvi

Chabot - DeMelo
Harpur - Ceci
Borowiecki - Jaros
Lajoie

McKenna (starter)
Hogberg

Game Notes

  • Robin Lehner’s been excellent while facing his former team, going 2-0-1 against Ottawa last season, and 3-0-1 in 2016-17. The Sens have yet to beat him in regulation.
  • It’ll be interesting to see how they manage their goalie tandem with Anderson out. Do they trust McKenna enough to give him the same workload they were giving Andy? Will Hogberg even get a start, and if so, do they also decide to give a chance to Filip Gustavsson at some point? Maybe Condon returns from injury or they claim someone off waivers, but there’s a lot up in the air right now.
  • Game time is 7:00 p.m. You can catch the game at TSN5, RDS2 or MSG+.

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

Team Stats

Category Ottawa Senators Washington Capitals
Category Ottawa Senators Washington Capitals
-- Value Rank Value Rank
Goals/GP 3.18 11th 3.58 3rd
Goals Against/GP 3.95 31st 2.86 12th
Shots/GP 29.1 25th 29.9 23rd
Shots Against/GP 37.8 31st 31.9 20th
Powerplay % 22.0 11th 23.5 7th
Penalty Kill % 74.5 29th 77.1 25th
Corsi (5v5, Score & Venue Adjusted) 43.24 31st 48.37 23rd
Fenwick (5v5, SVA) 43.57 31st 48.32 22nd

Player Stats

Ottawa Senators Washington Capitals
Ottawa Senators Washington Capitals
-- Player # Player #
Goals Mark Stone 17 Alexander Ovechkin 29
Assists Thomas Chabot 28 Nicklas Backstrom 32
Points Mark Stone 41 Alexander Ovechkin 45
Shots Thomas Chabot 100 Alexander Ovechkin 145
TOI/GP Thomas Chabot 23:52 John Carlson 25:26