Game 51 Hub: Ottawa Senators @ Chicago Blackhawks

We finally found Maxence Guenette aaaannnd he's gone...

Photo by Christopher Alvarenga / Unsplash

Let's be real, it felt like it was only a matter of time before Joonas Korpisalo turned back into a pumpkin. But did it have to happen against the Anaheim Ducks? A .750 will submarine you against any team.

The Chicago Blackhawks are perhaps even easier competition, having lost 9 of their last 10, but to most teams, the Ottawa Senators are as well. And the Sens haven't beaten Chicago since Guy Boucher was head coach — back when Boucher was still a popular figure with Sens fans. Unless these highly-paid players are okay with being the faces of a lottery team yet again, they should hopefully be on their A-game today.

Puck drop is set for 3:00 pm EST, and the game is available on TSN5 and TSN 1200.

Jake Sanderson and Artem Zub are expected to return to the lineup today, and I'll assume Anton Forsberg starts in goal. Here are the projected lines:

Sens lines from their Friday morning practice.

Tkachuk-Norris-Batherson
Joseph-Stützle-Giroux
Greig-Pinto-Tarasenko
Kubalik-Kastelic-Kelly

Sanderson-Zub
Chabot-JBD
Chychrun-Hamonic
Brannstrom-Guenette
— TSN 1200 (@TSN1200) February 16, 2024

Stats:

Game 51	Senators		Blackhawks
Category	Player	#	Player	#
Goals	Brady Tkachuk	25	Jason Dickinson	16
Assists	Tim Stützle	36	Phillip Kurashev	20
Points	Stützle, Giroux	47	Connor Bedard	34
Shots	Brady Tkachuk	218	Connor Bedard	122
Time on Ice/GP	Thomas Chabot	24:19	Seth Jones	25:33

Game 51	Senators		Blackhawks
Category	#	Rank	#	Rank
Goals/GP	3.38	8th	2.06	32nd
Goals Against/GP	3.62	30th	3.52	29th
Shots/GP	32.6	8th	26.4	31st
Shots Against/GP	30.5	19th	32.3	27th
Powerplay %	15.8	24th	12.3	32nd
Penalty Kill %	74.1	31st	77.8	23rd
Corsi % (5v5 SVA)	49.81	19th	42.60	31st
xGF % (5v5 SVA)	48.65	23rd	41.28	31st