Game 24 preview: Philadelphia Flyers @ Ottawa Senators

The Ottawa Senators return to start a sequence of three straight games at home when they host the Philadelphia Flyers tonight. The Senators earned four points out of six on the road and are three points ahead of the New Jersey Devils for the final playoff spot. The Flyers are coming off a 3-0 shutout win over the Rangers on Saturday.

There will be no changes to the lineup with Colin Greening and Patrick Wiercioch being the healthy scratches. Craig Anderson will start. Here are the lines and pairings.

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

Methot - Karlsson
Cowen - Ceci
Borowiecki - Wideman

Anderson (starter)
Driedger

Some notes for tonight:

• Erik Karlsson's point streak is at nine games now. He is getting some Hart Trophy chatter as well.
• Mike Hoffman is firmly becoming my second favourite player. His release is just a thing of beauty to watch. Despite missing four games, he is tied for second on the team with 21 points in 19 games including points in four straight.
• Ottawa has scored three or more goals for six consecutive games. They have allowed three or more for three consecutive games since a 4-0 shutout win over the Flyers.
• Some Karlsson statistics: he is sixth in the league in points and third in assists. From war-on-ice.com, among 52 defencemen with at least 400 minutes of 5- on-5 ice time, he is second in relative Corsi, third in relative Fenwick, fifth in relative shots, fifth in relative scoring chances and sixth in relative high-danger scoring chances.
• Jakub Voracek's tough luck continues with just one goal on 73 shots this season.
• The Flyers have three players with double digit point totals. Ottawa has five players with 20 or more.
• Mark Borowiecki doesn't have a shot on goal in the last five and incredibly only has nine all season in 23 games. He has 47 shots on goal in 107 career games.
• The 19 shots on goal allowed against Arizona were by far the fewest this season. The previous low had been 25.
• Among 32 goalies with 13+ games (roughly to get 30 starting goalies), Craig Anderson's 91.6 save percentage is tied for 13th./