Game 13 preview: Winnipeg Jets @ Ottawa Senators

The Ottawa Senators will look for their fourth win in five games when they host the Winnipeg Jets tonight. The Senators won three of the first four to start the season, then lost four in a row and have rebounded with another three wins in four games. They are coming off a 2-1 overtime win in Montréal on Tuesday while the Jets won 4-2 in Toronto last night.

The Senators will disappointingly, but not surprisingly, go with the same lineup. That means another night of funnies provided by the Houses of Borowiecki and Cowen. Mark Stone is suspended for the second of his two-game suspension but should be back on Saturday. Craig Anderson will start.

Here are the lines:

Hoffman - Turris - Lazar
Prince - Zibanejad - Ryan
Michalek - Pageau - Chiasson
Puempel - Smith - Neil

Methot - Karlsson
Wiercioch - Ceci
Cowen - Borowiecki

Anderson (starter)
Hammond

Some notes for tonight:

• There seems to be some defending of continuing to play both Jared Cowen and Mark Borowiecki in the lineup because of their penalty killing usefulness. There have been 73 defencemen with at least 25 minutes of shorthanded ice time this season. In terms of shorthanded shot attempts allowed, Cowen and Borowiecki are 60th and 69th. In terms of unblocked shorthanded unblocked shot attempts allowed, Cowen and Borowiecki are 53rd and 59th. In terms of shorthanded shots on goal allowed, Cowen and Borowiecki are 43rd and 61st. In terms of shorthanded goals allowed, Cowen and Borowiecki are 70th and 64th. (All stats are measured per 60 minutes).
  By any measure, Cowen and Borowiecki range from bad to awful to a disaster on the penalty kill. It would be less than ideal to give more shorthanded ice time to the other four defencemen currently playing, but it can't get much worse. Especially with the resulting improvement in 5-on-5 play.
• On the bright side Mike Hoffman is back! And Mark Stone will be back Saturday. That line was dominant when they were all together.
• The Jets played a surprisingly competitive game in Toronto last night, so hopefully they used up enough energy for Ottawa to take advantage of a tired team tonight.
• Ottawa has three players in the top 15 in terms of points per game.
• The Senators have not allowed an even strength goal in two of their last three games.
• Curtis Lazar has two points this season. One of them was an empty net goal on the opening night of the season and the other was an assist on a power play goal. But he is being given another chance on the top line.
• Kyle Turris has a goal in four straight games. His eight goals are tied for third in the NHL./