Game 7 Preview + Open Thread: Wild @ Senators

It’s been a great home stand, with the Ottawa Senators looking for the sw... sweet, sweet win to close it out (not going to say that other “s” word).

They are hosting the Minnesota Wild who have struggled out of the gate. They’ve picked up a pair of wins and an OT loss in their past three (their only points on the season), but those wins were against Vancouver and Montreal so take that turn-around with a grain of salt. Their offence has pretty good (especially on the power play), it’s their goaltending that has been the problem.

Marc-Andre Fleury’s .869 sv% is 31st in the league among all 65 goalies to see the ice, and Filip Gustavsson’s .860 is 63rd. They’re 59th and 58 respectively in 5v5 goals saved above expected as well, with Gus allowing 1.7 more goals than expected per 60 minutes of play and Fleury 1.9 more. Fleury is the expected starter, and the plan has to be to keep the pressure on him.

Two lineup changes for Ottawa. Anton Forsberg is back and expected to start, while Nikita Zaitsev draws in for Nick Holden on the third pairing.

Game Notes

• Will Shane Pinto keep his scoring streak going? His five goals put him in a 10-way tie (including Brady Tkachuk) for 5th in the league
• Speaking of Tkachuk, his 10 points puts him in a tie for 9th in league scoring, along side Mats Zuccarello, Dominik Kubalik and some guy named MacKinnon
• And the other end of the spectrum, Alex DeBrincat is still looking for his first non-empty net goal. No Senators player is putting more pucks on the net than DeBrincat so it still should just be a matter of time, but he’s off to a slower start on the score sheet than we were hoping to see
• Newly extended Mark Kastelic has been killing it in the faceoff dot. Winning 71.3% of the draws is a big piece of why the fourth line hasn’t allowed a single goal yet
• From the “familiar faces” file, it’s nice to see former 67 Marco Rossi in the Minnesota lineup tonight, after having his 20-21 season derailed by covid complications and spending most of 21-22 in the AHL
• Not even a little bit about tonight’s game, but this stood out while gathering the team stats and I have to share - the Avs have a 50% PP, which is absurd even this early in the season

Catch the game at 7pm EST on TSN5 and RDS Info for TV coverage, and TSN1200 for the radio call.