Game 37 Preview and Open Thread: Ottawa Senators versus Buffalo Sabres

Pretend last night never happened

If you want to take a good news/bad news approach to this gameday then consider it good news that the Sabres also played yesterday and consider it bad news that Buffalo beat Boston (and probably have a lot more confidence today than Ottawa after that rough night in Detroit). I think Ottawa and Buffalo have much more similar teams than the standings suggest, but all the peripheral numbers remain meaningless for the Sens until they can routinely beat the teams they should beat. They’ll try again, at home this time, to prove their legitimacy in a season when two steps backwards always seem to follow any sort of forward progress.

Game Notes:

  • For the Sens, Erik Brännström, Rourke Chartier, Mathieu Joseph, Tyler Motte, Josh Norris, and Nikita Zaitsev remain on the injured list while the Sabres currently have Eric Comrie and Henri Jokiharju in their infirmary.
  • With both teams playing the second half of a back-to-back and with Cam Talbot and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen having played for Ottawa and Buffalo respectively yesterday, we should expect Craig Anderson and Anton Forsberg to start today.
  • Looking at Tage thompson’s numbers and Buffalo’s goal differential you can probably already tell that the Sabres have absurd shooting rates (Ottawa naturally has struggled in this category most of the season).
  • Ottawa technically has the better at five-on-five rates in terms of generating and suppressing chances but the Sens just can’t convert (with five-on-five goaltending about the same for both teams).
  • Ottawa again has better powerplay rates but Buffalo converts on way more of their chances. The penalty kill looks like Ottawa’s one clear advantage in an otherwise relatively even match-up./

Expected and Actual Goals

Team5V5 xGF/605V5 Sh%5V5 xGA/605V5 Sv%PP xGF/60PP Sh%PK xGA/60PK Sv%
Ottawa2.856.642.6491.309.3117.548.6188.89
Buffalo2.619.982.7391.456.9519.279.2485.17

Where to watch/listen: RDS2, TSN5, TSN1200 @ 7PM EST

Lines from Last Game:

Ottawa Senators:

Tkachuk - Stützle - Giroux
DeBrincat - Pinto - Batherson
Kelly - Gambrell - Lucchini
Brassard - Kastelic - Watson

Chabot - Zub
Sanderson - Hamonic
Holden - Bernard-Docker

Buffalo Sabres:

Skinner - Thompson - Tuch
Girgensons - Krebs - Okposo
Peterka - Cozens - Quinn
Mittelstadt - Jost - Olofsson

Dahlin - Samuelsson
Power - Clague
Bryson - Lyubushkin

Stats:

Players

Game 37OttawaSenatorsBuffaloSabres
CategoryPlayer#Player#
GoalsClaude Giroux 15Tage Thompson27
AssistsBrady Tkachuk 25Rasmus Dahlin28
PointsBrady Tkachuk38Tage Thompson51
ShotsBrady Tkachuk155Tage Thompson151
ATOIThomas Chabot26:08Rasmus Dahlin26:11

Teams

Game 38OttawaSenatorsColumbusBlue Jackets
Category#Rank#Rank
Goals/GP3.0024th2.6927th
Goals Against/GP3.1417th3.9131st
Shots/GP33.26th29.427th
Shots Against/GP32.522nd35.331st
Powerplay %27.74th15.829th
Penalty Kill %81.79th78.616th
Corsi % (5v5 SVA)51.0116th43.7929th
xGF % (5v5 SVA)51.1515th43.4028th

Subscribe to Silver Seven

Don’t miss out on the latest articles. Sign up now to get access to the library of members-only articles.
jamie@example.com
Subscribe