A week ago I had the pleasure of previewing an easy ‘W’ for the Ottawa Senators against the Habs, and not only did Ottawa lose that game—they lost two games after that game! The fun literally never ends. So this time around instead of saying things that will make me look foolish in ten hours, I’ll try sticking to the script. These two teams haven’t played against each other in two years! The Arizona Coyotes have gotten worse, the Sens have maybe gotten slightly less bad(?), and both teams have rejected modernity (mediocre jerseys) and embraced tradition (sick jerseys). Ottawa rolled these lines and pairing against Florida:

The Coyotes went with this lineup Thursday in a win over Colorado (Scott Wedgewood projected to start):

Game Notes

• Ottawa has the goaltending advantage by the numbers regardless of who starts, while surprisingly (although Ottawa has had more than its fair share of injuries up front) Arizona has had the better shooting luck this season.
• Both teams give up a lot on the penalty kill but Ottawa has managed to compensate with strong goaltending. Ottawa has a marginally better powerplay but you wouldn’t know it if you’ve watched them recently. Ottawa also has the better five-on-five but that really ain’t saying much if you’ve looked at the Coyotes’ numbers this year.
• In terms of how much these teams have turned over since their last meeting in 2020, the Coyotes’ biggest losses come in the form of Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Conor Garland, and Christian Dvorak.
• With Ryan Dzingel traded last week and Alex Galchenyuk having such a brief tenure in Ottawa, this game doesn’t have too many Ottawa connections on the ice but folks in these parts probably know Coyotes head coach Andre Tourigny both as an assistant coach for the Sens and more recently as head coach of the 67s./

Where to watch/listen: RDS, TSN5, TSN1200 @4PM EST

Stats

Players

Game 54	Ottawa	Senators	Arizona	Coyotes
Category	Player	#	Player	#
Goals	Josh Norris	18	Clayton Keller	21
Assists	Thomas Chabot	23	Phil Kessel	26
Points	Brady Tkachuk	38	Clayton Keller	47
Shots	Brady Tkachuk	177	Clayton Keller	151
TOI	Thomas Chabot	26:37	Jakob Chychrun	23:25

Teams

Game 54	Ottawa	Senators	Arizona	Coyotes
Category	Rank	#	Rank	#
Goals	26th	2.55	32nd	2.26
Goals against	23rd	3.15	29th	3.52
Shots	22nd	29.47	32nd	25.74
Shots against	28th	33.66	31st	34.41
Powerplay	28th	16.1%	32nd	11.6%
Penalty Kill	12th	81.1%	30th	74.0%
Corsi (5V5SVA)	26th	46.2%	32nd	43.0%
xGoals (5V5SVA)	26th	45.8%	32nd	42.3%