Game 48 preview: Ottawa Senators @ Florida Panthers

The Ottawa Senators will return to action after the all-star game starting with tonight's game in Florida against the Panthers. Ottawa was fortunate to take a point against Calgary but is now 6-1-2 in their last nine games after starting January with a pair of regulation losses to Washington. The Panthers are just about in touching distance of a playoff spot, being four points behind the Flyers for the final spot. They won their final game before the break, but lost four in a row before the win.

The only change for tonight is that Chris Neill will return to the lineup in the place of Curtis Lazar, who will be a healthy scratch. Mark Borowiecki will also be a healthy scratch while Mike Condon will start in net. Here are the expected lines and pairings.

Smith - Brassard - Stone
Dzingel - Turris - Ryan
Hoffman - Pageau - Pyatt
Wingels - Kelly - Neil

Methot - Karlsson
Phaneuf - Ceci
Claesson - Wideman

Condon (starter)
Hammond

Some notes for tonight:

• The Senators largely play against non-playoff teams for the next month and a half. The main concern now shouldn't be whether Ottawa makes the playoffs but if they can get home ice in the first round.
• Of the Senators final 35 games, 21 (or 60%) will be on the road. The 35 games will be played over a course of 69 days. Nice.
• Erik Karlsson might have gone almost two months without a goal, but on the bright side his shooting is 6.5%, his sacred number!
• Tonight will be Karlsson's 297th consecutive regular season game.
• Craig Anderson should be back in a couple of weeks, but Mike Condon has done an incredible job keeping the team afloat with no rest. I was questioning the fifth round pick for someone that was freely available earlier, but it has been well worth it.
• Mark Stone never gets too many shots on goal but this is his lowest shots per game season of his career. Luckily for him, he is shooting 19% this season. Although he is 16% for his career so that might not be too much of an outlier for him.
• Ottawa is actually almost within touching distance of the division title. They are seven points behind Montréal with three games in hand.
• Mark Borowiecki a healthy scratch? Never thought I would see the day, brings a tear to the eye.
• Mike Hoffman is getting 47 seconds more of power play time per game than he did last season. Erik Karlsson is receiving 53 seconds fewer than he did last season.
• Karlsson is playing 62 seconds more per game on the penalty kill than he did last season.
• James Reimer was supposed to start but with his wife April giving birth, it will be Roberto Luongo in net for Florida./

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