Game 41 Preview and Open Thread: Florida Panthers @ Ottawa Senators
Ottawa’s first game of 2020 closes out the first half of the season
The Senators will try to ring in 2020 with a better game than they closed out 2019 with, as the Panthers pay a visit to Ottawa.
The one roster change from Monday’s loss was yesterday when J.C. Beaudin was sent back to Belleville, and Rudolfs Balcers got the call up. Nikita Zaitsev was maybe going to be back this game, but was still sore after yesterday’s practice so the team is playing it safe with him.
While the roster hasn’t changed much, the lines have been shuffled a little. Brady Tkachuck and Nick Paul have swapped spots, while Balcers is bumping Artem Anisimov rather than taking Beaudin’s spot directly. Today’s lineups from morning skate:
Paul - Pageau - C.Brown
Balcers - White - Ennis
Namestnikov - Anisimov - Sabourin
Chabot - Goloubef
Borowiecki - Jaros
Englund - Brannstrom
Anderson (Starter)
Hogberg
Game Notes:
- November belonged to Jean-Gabriel Pageau. Anthony Duclair ran away with December. Who’s turn is it this month?
- Maybe Nick Paul? He did close off the month with three goals in the last two games
- Interesting to see Florida have two players - Jonathan Huberdeau and Aleksander Barkov - in the top 10 in the league for Assists, but their top goal scorer (also Huberdeau) doesn’t even crack the top 30
- It’s a 7:30 start tonight, on TSN5 and RDS2/
Stats, courtesy of naturalstattrick.com and nhl.com:
Player Stats
| Ottawa | Senators | Calgary | Flames | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Category | Player | # | Player | # |
| Goals | Anthony Duclair | 21 | Elias Lindholm | 20 |
| Assists | Thomas Chabot | 23 | Johnny Gaudreau | 25 |
| Points | Anthony Duclair | 32 | Matthew Tkachuk, Johnny Gaudreau | 38 |
| Shots | Brady Tkachuk | 167 | Johnny Gaudreau | 141 |
| Time On Ice | Thomas Chabot | 26:34 | Mark Giordano | 24:11 |
Team Stats
| Ottawa | Senators | Florida | Panthers | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | Rank | # | Rank | |
| Goals/GP | 2.77 | 22nd | 3.49 | 5th |
| Goals against/GP | 3.25 | 23rd | 3.36 | 28th |
| Shots/GP | 29.8 | 24th | 33.3 | 7th |
| Shots against/GP | 33.1 | 29th | 32.1 | 21st |
| Powerplay % | 11.2 | 31st | 23.0 | 9th |
| Penalty Kill % | 81.5 | 13th | 78.2 | 22nd |
| Corsi % (5v5, Score and Venue Adjusted) | 46.65 | 28th | 49.59 | 19th |
| Fenwick % (5v5, SVA) | 47.61 | 24th | 50.29 | 15th |