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Game 13 Preview and Open Thread - Ottawa Senators at New Jersey Devils

The Sens hope to stop the streak on the road

NHL: New Jersey Devils at Ottawa Senators Marc DesRosiers-USA TODAY Sports

The Ottawa Senators have a hill to climb over tonight if they want to get out of the hole they’re in.

The New Jersey Devils are the hottest team in the East right now, with seven wins in a row and a record of 9-1-0 in their last 10. Their underlying stats are rock solid too, leading the league in 5v5 xGF% and second in CF%. Looks like it could be a repeat of the puckbath we saw in Florida, but also looks like the setup for a pretty good Sensing.

The big news on the Senators side of things is the waiving of Nikita Zaitsev. No morning skate today, and the only chance expected from Tuesday’s game is Nick Holden in for Nikita Zaitsev. Forsberg starts.

Here’s how they lined up otherwise at practice on Wednesday:

Game Notes

  • Zaitsev cleared waivers, but no word on reassignment (yet). With only six other healthy D, he might stick with the big club at least through this short road trip
  • Hellberg, however, was re-claimed by Seattle. Maybe he’ll get to use the sweet Kraken pads he had made at least?
  • At least while we’re still waiting on the floodgates to open for Alex DeBrincat goals, he’s having a career year for assists. He has more primary assists per 60 minutes of play this year than he has had assists (primary and secondary) per 60 minutes in any other season
  • Speaking of floodgates, the Senators woeful power play scored twice last game! Maybe that bit of success there will loosen things up going forward
  • The Sens offence, which has been generating chances (on paper at least) gets a tough test tonight, the Devils have not allowed very much at all this season. But while “Devils don’t allow much” is a bit of a stereotype, this is isn’t the low event trap team of yore - the defence will be tested tonight too

Stats

Players

Game 16 Ottawa Senators Buffalo Sabres
Game 16 Ottawa Senators Buffalo Sabres
Category Player # Player #
Goals Shane Pinto/Claude Giroux 8 Tage Thompson 11
Assists Brady Tkachuk 14 Rasmus Dahlin 11
Points Brady Tkachuk 20 Tage Thompson 21
Shots Alex DeBrincat/Brady Tkachuk 59 Tage Thompson 69
Time on Ice/GP Tim Stutzle (of healthy players) 20:26 Rasmus Dahlin 26:24

Teams

Game 16 Ottawa Senators Buffalo Sabres
Game 16 Ottawa Senators Buffalo Sabres
Category # Rank # Rank
Goals/GP 3.4 10th 3.69 T-4th
Goals Against/GP 3.53 24th 3.56 T-25th
Shots/GP 32.5 10th 31.9 14th
Shots Against/GP 34.2 25th 31.4 15th
Powerplay % 23.2 10th 23.7 8th
Penalty Kill % 76.8 20th 71.4 29th
Corsi % (5v5 SVA) 51.18 15th 52.17 11th
xGF % (5v5 SVA) 50.97 13th 49.26 18th

It’s a 7pm ET game time, on TSN5 and RDS for TV, and TSN1200 for the radio call.