Game 10 preview: Anaheim Ducks @ Ottawa Senators

The Ottawa Senators will look for their fourth win in five games when they host the no longer mighty Anaheim Ducks tonight. After starting the season 1-2-2, the Senators beat Phoenix and New Jersey before losing to Edmonton and following up with a win against Detroit. Meanwhile, the Ducks have lost consecutive games in Toronto and Montréal after a 7-1-0 start that included a 4-1 demolition of Ottawa.

The Senators will make no changes to the team that won 6-1 in Detroit. The Ducks will be without Teemu Selanne who is sticking to his plan of not playing back-to-back games. Tonight will be an emotional night as the Senators play their first home game against long time Swedish legend, Jakob Silfverberg.

Here are the Senators lines and pairings from Sylvain St-Laurent.

MacArthur - Turris - Ryan
Michalek - Spezza - Conacher
Grant - Zibanejad - Condra
Greening - Smith - Neil

Méthot - Karlsson
Cowen - Corvo
Phillips - Gryba

Anderson (starter)
Lehner

Some talking points for tonight:

• Craig Anderson is going to hope for a better performance tonight than the one in Anaheim. He gave up two goals in four minutes and was pulled for Robin Lehner. Lehner also gave up two goals...but on 47 more shots. The Ducks had a total of 56 shots in that game.
• Ottawa's big guns are scoring and that's a good thing, because the others aren't doing much. Of the Senators 27 goals, 13 have been scored by Jason Spezza or Bobby Ryan and Ryan, Spezza along with Kyle Turris have had a point in 21 of those 27 goals.
• Joe Corvo is a point per game. Huh?
• Eric Gryba hasn't sucked since the first game of the season. Huh?
• The Senators are catching the Ducks at a good time. This will be a back-to-back game for them, third in four nights and their backup goaltender is injured. Frederik Andersen might be making his first career start.
• Judging by the first ten games, it sounds like the Atlantic division could get 5 playoff spots. Ottawa is currently sixth in the Atlantic but would be ahead of the second place team in the Metropolitan with a win tonight.
• Jason Spezza has scored a goal on six of his last eight shots. If he gets four shots tonight, I am expecting a hat trick.
• Tonight will be Jared Cowen's 100th regular season game.

Here are some stats leaders for the two teams tonight.