Game 35 Preview & Open Thread: Ottawa Senators @ Tampa Bay Lightning

The Lightning have had plenty of time to brood over a 5-2 loss to the Capitals last Saturday while the Sens play the second half of a back-to-back with a roster held together by paper clips and bits of string. Ottawa will have the deck stacked against them as the visiting team with a huge disadvantage facing a well-rested opponent. Tampa has also put a slow start behind them and settled into a groove looking more like a team ready to compete with Boston for the division title.

The Senators should use their embarrassing loss at the hands (paws?) of the Panthers as extra motivation to at least keep this one respectable. Stay tuned to find out if Anders Nilsson gets a shot at redemption or if he has to take the night off to recover from that Monday night atrocity. We’ll also have to see if DJ Smith intends to insert Maxime Lajoie into the lineup in place of Andreas Englund or if Mikkel Boedker gets an opportunity up front given just how poorly the team performed in Sunrise.

The Senators continue to re-align their roster to manage injuries and workload so expect some changes to this lineup that started against the Panthers:

The Lightning rolled out this lineup in their last contest (with Johnson in place of Stephens who has since returned to Syracuse) :

Game Notes

• The Sens handled Tampa Bay admirably in their last meeting back on October 12th, taking the win and managing the majority of shot volume and expected goals. Ottawa did, however, have home-ice advantage in that game and a much healthier roster to work with so temper your expectations of a repeat.
• With the stronger of two opponents coming on the latter half of this back-to-back, I find it someone curious that Anders Nilsson started against the Panthers. Marcus Hogberg will, however, have to face teams as talented as Tampa eventually and this game could provide him with a huge opportunity if he gets the start.
• I can’t overstate how overmatched Ottawa’s defence will find itself in this contest as the absences of Dylan DeMelo and Nikita Zaitsev already create a huge void down the right side for the Senators and DJ Smith has shown a reluctance to distribute minutes among his young defenders. If Chabot, Hainsey, and Borowiecki look completely cooked in this one, cut them some slack.
• Puck drop at 7:00EST and you can catch the game on TSN5, RDS, and TSN1200/

Stats as always courtesy of natural stat trick (except PP% and PK% courtesy of hockey reference)

Player Stats

Team Stats