Game 41: Tampa Bay Lightning @ Ottawa Senators

Tonight is game #41 for the Ottawa Senators. If you are clever and went to university for engineering like me, you would know that is exactly the halfway point of the 82-game NHL season. A win tonight and the Senators are on pace for 94 points and pass the Pittsburgh Penguins for the 5th seed. A loss and Ottawa could fall to the dark depths that is the 7th seed. Having won 20 out of their 40 games, Ottawa will also attempt to have more wins than total losses since they were 7-6-0 on 4 November.

Craig Anderson will start and Chris Phillips is still out with a concussion. Without further delay, here are your 2012 NHL All-Stars tonight's lines:

More after the jump (one day I will start putting up stats again).

Here are some things to look out for tonight:

• Phillips out: Though Phillips missed most of the last game, he's out for the whole game tonight. Paul MacLean says he will look to Jared Cowen to play Phillips' role. That third pairing fills me with fear.
• Power play: Would it surprise you to know that the power play has been over 17% in the last 10 games? Sure seems like it has been a lot worse. I guess those two 4-on-3 goals helped but it has been 6 for 35 which doesn't sound completely awful.
• Southeast domination: The Senators are 7-2-2 against the southeast division, including 2-0 against Tampa Bay.
• Spezza and Alfredsson against Tampa Bay: Jason Spezza has 36 points in 27 games against Tampa Bay while Daniel Alfredsson has 62 in 53 games. Alfredsson had a career best 7 points against Tampa Bay in January 2008. Alfie has also scored two overtime winners during the Sens current win streak.
• Anderson and Karlsson playing well: Erik Karlsson has been spectacular in the last three games. Anderson has only allowed four goals in eight periods. Can we expect Anderson to keep this up?