Game 40 Preview: Tampa Bay Lightning @ Ottawa Senators

Well that was fun. As much as my head says I want this team to lose and sign up for 10  years of Rasmus Dahlin and Erik Karlsson, my heart loves watching this team come from behind and beat a good team in the San Jose Sharks. We know this team has firepower, and they managed to overcome goaltending deficiency and outscore the Sharks. Then I remind myself this team needs to go something like 30-11-2 the rest of the year to make the playoffs, and I don’t know what to think.

With Nate Thompson hurt, Colin White was called up and will play in his spot. Other than that, the lineup is unchanged, meaning Craig Anderson gets back-to-back starts because he only allowed five goals last night. Here are the lineups:

Some thoughts:

• Ryan Dzingel now has 11 goals in 39 games, good enough for second place on this team. He used his speed to create a number of scoring chances last year but just couldn’t finish. Nice to see him finally start to put the puck in the net.
• Last night was only Matt Duchene’s second multi-point game as a Senator (and first multi-goal game). We know the skill is there, but again, skill that doesn’t lead to goals isn’t very useful
• In particular, I liked seeing Duchene and Hoffman together. The two of them can keep up with each other and complement each other well with their puck skills. Part of me wonders if I’d like to see Dzingel join them to have an ultra-fast top line, with Dzingel as the net-crasher
• According to Sean Tierney, Craig Anderson has cost the Sens an average of 0.5 goals-per-60 at 5v5. That’s second-worst among starting goalies in the league. The thing is Mike Condon hasn’t been good at all either. Hard to imagine how this season would be going if the Sens were getting even NHL average goaltending.
• Mark Stone is at 37 points in 39 games. That’s really good for a team that’s not doing great at all.
• The Lightning are the best team in the league in goals-per-game, and the second-best in goals-allowed-per-game. That’s a good way to be the best team in the league.
• As Callum pointed out last night, the win last night was largely due to playing their top-six forwards in the top six. Zack Smith or Jean-Gabriel Pageau may be passable replacements, but we’ve seen Alexandre Burrows and Nate Thompson and Tom Pyatt this season in the top six. When you saddle your scorers with anchors, you don’t score, and more often than not, you get scored on./

Stats for tonight’s teams:

Team Stats

Player Stats