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Game 21 Preview + Open Thread: Ottawa Senators @ Carolina Hurricanes

Sens face another battle against top team

Vancouver Canucks v Ottawa Senators Photo by André Ringuette/NHLI via Getty Images
  • The Ottawa Senators may have officially reached rock bottom after losing to the Vancouver Canucks last night. Tonight, they face a much harder opponent in the Carolina Hurricanes and it will be interesting to see how the Sens respond after the embarrassing showing last night.

It seems sending Matt Murray to Belleville hasn’t helped the goalie situation in Ottawa. It appears the issue was maybe defense all along but who would have known? Either way, as expected with a back to back, Anton Forsberg will be starting in net tonight.

DJ Smith seems to be reverting back to Stützle on centre and it would be nice to see him in that position for a longer period of time and see how he would adjust. Newcomer Adam Gaudette scored his first goal last night and hopefully he goes on some sort of run.

According to DJ Smith, lineup stays the same as last night with Tyler Ennis coming back into the lineup - the decision on who he’s replacing is still to be determined. As mentioned above, Anton Forsberg will be in net.

The big questions:

  • Will the Sens ever win again?
  • Seriously, will they?
  • Will we ever hear anything from Pierre Dorion or Pierre “Media Mastermind” McGuire?
  • Will Drake Batherson continue his point-per-game pace?
  • Would there be anything more Sens than beating one of the best teams in the league after falling to three of the worst back-to-back-to-back?

Game details for tonight:

Stats Preview

Team Stats

Game 26 Ottawa Senators Florida Panthers
Game 26 Ottawa Senators Florida Panthers
Category # Rank # Rank
Goals/GP 2.64 26th 3.7 2nd
Goals Against/GP 3.72 32nd 2.7 12th
Shots/GP 28.4 29th 36.1 1st
Shots Against/GP 34.1 30th 30.6 11th
Powerplay % 19.10% 15th 18.80% 17th
Penalty Kill % 75.30% 27th 81.00% 16th
Corsi % (5v5 SVA) 44.81% 31st 57.13% 1st
xGF % (5v5 SVA) 45.20% 31st 56.26% 1st

Player Stats

Game 26 Ottawa Senators Florida Panthers
Game 26 Ottawa Senators Florida Panthers
Category Player # Player #
Goals Josh Norris 12 Aleksander Barkov 10
Assists Drake Batherson 16 Jonathan Huberdeau 22
Points Drake Batherson 24 Jonathan Huberdeau 31
Shots Brady Tkachuk 72 Aaron Ekblad 90
Time on Ice/GP Thomas Chabot 27:09 Aaron Ekblad 25:39