Game 48 preview: Arizona Coyotes @ Ottawa Senators

The Ottawa Senators return to action when they host the Arizona Coyotes this afternoon. Ottawa continues to meander along at around a point per game pace and sit 24th in the NHL seven points ahead of the 28th place Coyotes. The Senators are coming off a disappointing 6-3 loss to Dallas while Arizona won 3-1 in Toronto.

Craig Anderson has been placed on injured reserve so Robin Lehner will start again. Patrick Wiercioch and Eric Gryba will be the healthy scratches. David Legwand is back in for the injured Alex Chiasson.

Here are the lines from Gord Wilson.

MacArthur - Zibanejad - Ryan
Hoffman - Turris - Lazar
Michalek - Legwand - Stone
Condra - Pageau - Neil

Methot - Karlsson
Cowen - Ceci
Phillips - Borowiecki

Lehner (starter)
Hammond

Some notes for today:

• That bottom pairing should be something. Two terrible defencemen, neither good at moving the puck and one playing his wrong side.
• Robin Lehner has a save percentage under 90% for six straight games now. He has allowed four or more goals in his last five starts.
• Mika Zibanejad sure has silenced his critics from earlier in the season that were laughably suggesting the AHL for him. He is getting better and better and might make a case for being the Senators best centre before too long.
• Cody Ceci and Jared Cowen continue to look like a horror show together. Really hope one or both players are replaced from the second pairing for next season.
• Bobby Ryan has been fantastic for a while now. If he can keep it up, that contract extension could prove to be of good value.
• Thanks to two empty net goals, Erik Karlsson ended up as a -3 on Thursday./

Here are some stats for the two teams tonight. All stats are from NHL.com except Corsi and Fenwick are from naturalstattrick.com.