Game 37 Preview: B’s @ Sens

The Sens host the Bruins on Saturday night in Kanata

The Ottawa Senators come into Saturday night’s game on the heels of an impressive victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets in which they scored four straight goals and generally controlled play against one of the better teams in the league. They look to build

Let me just say up front that it felt very strange to type all of that out given the team’s performance this season. The Sens really did play well last night. They won a game that they probably deserved to win, and virtually all of their stars had performances worth remembering. It’s going to be nearly impossible to climb back into the play-off race at this stage, but last night’s game was a reminder of what this team can aspire to be when everything is clicking. In a season otherwise virtually devoid of hope, that sure felt good.

As for tonight’s affair, there was no game day skate so here’s how Boucher lined them up last night:

Dzingel - Duchene - Ryan
Pyatt - Brassard - Stone
Hoffman - Chlapik - Pageau
Paul - Thompson - Burrows

Oduya - Karlsson
Phaneuf - Ceci
Harpur - Chabot

Condon (starter)
Anderson

Thoughts:

  • Winning is fun, the Sens should do more of that
  • Although the Bruins are currently occupying the third seed in the Atlantic Division, it’s the Toronto Maple Leafs that the Sens might realistically be hunting down if they want to pull off a play-off miracle. The B’s have a better PTS% than the Buds and their underlying metrics are sterling. If I had to pick one of the two squads to come back to the pack a bit, I might choose Toronto.
  • David Krejci returns to the line-up for the Bruins tonight. Boston’s depth down the middle is dramatically improved when he anchors the second line.
  • That being said, the key to success against Boston is in limiting the Patrice Bergeron - Brad Marchand - David Pastrnak line. Good luck with that, Cody Ceci!/

Here are some stats for the team via, as always, NHL.com and NaturalStatTrick.com:

Team Stats

CategoryOttawaSenatorsBostonBruins
--ValueRankValueRank
Goals/GP2.6825th3.256th
Goals against/GP3.4430th2.563rd
Shots/GP30.724th32.811th
Shots against/GP33.025th29.32nd
Powerplay %16.726th23.54th
Penalty Kill %76.227th83.34th
Corsi (5v5, Score & Venue Adjusted)46.3229th53.972nd
Fenwick (5v5, SVA)46.9427th54.011st

Player Stats

OttawaSenatorsBostonBruins
--Player#Player#
GoalsMatt Duchene27Brad Marchand34
AssistsErik Karlsson (out)53Brad Marchand51
PointsKarlsson/Stone (both out)62Brad Marchand85
ShotsMike Hoffman253David Pastrnak236
TOI/GPErik Karlsson (out)26:44Zdeno Chara22:53

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