Game 52 Preview: New Jersey Devils @ Ottawa Senators

The Ottawa Senators (17-25-9) host the New Jersey Devils (27-16-8) tonight at the Canadian Tire Centre. The Sens’ two game winning streak was snapped on Sunday in a 4-1 loss to Montreal, while the Devils are riding a three game win streak, most recently defeating Pittsburgh 3-1.

Lineup Notes

Bobby Ryan’s hand injury is more serious than first expected, and will be out for at least three weeks. Nate Thompson and Derick Brassard are also out with injuries, significantly impacting the team’s ranks at centre. Taking one of the open places will be Max McCormick, who was called up this morning from Belleville. Fredrik Claesson will also draw into the lineup after being a healthy scratch for the last three games, as Boucher will be forced to go with eleven forwards and seven defencemen.

For some better roster news, Mark Stone is close to returning, although he won’t be playing tonight. Chris Wideman also skated for the first time since his surgery, although he’s still expected to be out for the remainder of the season.

Starting Goalies

Craig Anderson gets the start for Ottawa, with Keith Kinkaid being the Devils’ acting starter with Cory Schneider injured day-to-day. Andy has the lead in save percentage, stopping 90.3% of pucks compared to Kinkaid’s 89.8%.

Line Combos

The combos are a mystery at this point, so here’s my best guess based on last game (they’ll probably flip-flop mid-game anyways):

Game Notes

• This will be Max McCormick 4th game of the season for Ottawa. The Sens called him up a couple weeks ago mere hours before their road game in St. Louis, which ended up being cancelled because of travel issues.
• This likely won’t be the last we’ll see of McCormick in the NHL either, as he’s on a one-way contract for next season making $650,000. The feisty 25-year-old has 25 points in 46 AHL games this season.
• Johnny Oduya is raking in his performance bonuses. He received a $250K bonus this week for playing his 41st game, and he’ll receive another if he reaches 65 games. He’s also on pace for a third bonus at the end of the season if he stays in the top five for time on ice amongst Sens defencemen (he’s currently 4th).
• Guy Boucher’s had Phaneuf and Ceci glued back together for the last couple weeks. Amongst all pairings with at least 300 minutes together at 5v5 (67 results), they rank dead last in Corsi%, and second to last in Expected Goals%.
• In their last ten games, the Sens’ Corsi% of 39.53% is far and away the worst in the league. New Jersey (54.34%) ranks third in that same span.
• For fans in Binghamton who are on the fence on who to cheer for tonight, remember that we have Mike Hoffman.
• Game time is 7:30 p.m.

Head-to-Head Stats