The Ottawa Senators only got one point last night, but considering the strange nature of the first two goals from the Boston Bruins and the fact that the Senators had more dangerous changes, it’s easy to be happy with the result. The Senators are now 14-10-4 in their last 28 games and will look to improve on that while playing against a top New York Rangers team.

The last time these two teams met was October 23rd, 2021, which was a nightmare turning point for Ottawa. They were up 2-0 with five minutes to go, and not only did they lose 3-2 in regulation, Matt Murray (who was on a roll up until then) was injured by Chris Kreider. So instead of starting the season 3-2-0, they were 2-3-0, and things just fell apart from there where they only won twice in their next 15 games.

The Rangers are 31-13-5 on the season, good for 3rd in the Metropolitan Division and tied for 7th overall. They’ll be a force for quite a while, and today will be a difficult matchup for a thin Senators lineup.

We don’t know what the lines will be like today just yet, but we do know that Filip Gustavsson will be starting for Ottawa. Here are the lines from last night which might end up being the same:

Saturday morning skate lines:

Tkachuk Paul CBrown
Formenton Stützle Gaudette
Kelly Gambrell Watson
Sanford Tierney Ennis

Brannstrom Zub
Holden Zaitsev
Mete JBrown

Forsberg - starters End.
Gustavsson

— TSN 1200 (@TSN1200) February 19, 2022

Game Notes

• Nick Holden has 7 points in his last 9 games and DJ Smith was singing his praises yesterday. He seems to be quite the popular guy on the team and it’s easy to see why.
• Smith also spoke highly of Victor Mete last game, who needs all the breaks he can get. He’s only played in 29/48 games and will need to be better if he wants to stay in the lineup when Thomas Chabot and Jake Sanderson are here.
• One of the few “enforcers” left in the game, Ryan Reaves, will most likely be playing tonight, and I’m sure there will be some altercations with him. The Rangers wanted to get tougher in the off-season and it shows.
• It’s expected that Alexandar Georgiev will start for New York, although it hasn’t been confirmed. He only has an .898 SV% in 20 games this season, while Igor Shesterkin has a whopping .938 SV% in 31 games, so that would be a huge break for Ottawa.
• As you’ll see below, the Rangers are a weird team. They’re dead last in corsi and give up a ton of quality chances, but they make up for it with incredible goaltending from Shesterkin and timely scoring from guys like Chris Kreider, Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, etc. They have a ton of talent so they’re always dangerous.
• Puck drop is 5 pm ET, you can watch on TSN5, TVAS, or listen on TSN1200/

Player Stats

Team Stats