Game 55 Preview & Open Thread: Ottawa Senators @ Winnipeg Jets

After a lifeless loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday night, the Sens are on a mini two-game road trip that sees them stop in Winnipeg this afternoon, before facing the Avalanche in Denver on Tuesday.

Here’s what we expect from the Sens, with Vladislav Namestnikov as a potential question mark after taking a puck to the face in practice:

Tkachuk - Pageau - Brown
Namestnikov - Tierney - Duclair
Ennis - White - Batherson
Paul - Anisimov - Boedker

Chabot - DeMelo
Reilly - Zaitsev
Hainsey - Goloubef

Hogberg (starter)
Anderson

Meanwhile, here’s what we expect from Paul Maurice’s Jets:

Connor - Schiefele - Laine
Ehlers - Wheeler - Appleton
Harkins - Copp - Roslovic
Bourque - Shore - Shaw

Morrissey - Pionk
Kulikov - Niku
Bitetto - Sbisa

Brossoit (starter)
Hellebuyck

Game Notes:

• With Mark Borowiecki absent from the team awaiting the birth of his first child, the Sens recalled Andreas Englund from Belleville. He’s not expected to play tonight.
• Drake Batherson has been the team’s best forward over this recent stretch, and I’ve really enjoyed watching him play with two smart forwards in Tyler Ennis and Colin White. The points haven’t been there for White this year, but his underlying metrics look okay and the team must be hoping that he’ll grow from this in the offseason.
• It’ll be interesting to see Mike Reilly play away from Dylan DeMelo for an extended period so we can get a good sense of his isolated impact under D.J. Smith. DeMelo has been vital to Borowiecki’s career year, and Reilly looked great next to him. Nikita Zaitsev is basically the polar opposite.
• Moving over to the Jets, Winnipeg finds themselves just one point behind Calgary for the second wild-card spot, and two points behind Arizona for the first spot. They’ve gone 3-6-1 over their last 10, which hasn’t helped, so they’re hoping to use a win against Ottawa to propel them back into the mix.
• I’m not sure there’s a bigger drop-off between a team’s top-six and bottom-six in the league. The Winnipeg I remember from recent memory had immense depth at both forward and defence, but they look bare on both fronts.
• Patrik Laine has more assists than goals!  /

Here’s some pre-game stats, courtesy of NHL.com and Natural Stat Trick:

Player Stats

	Ottawa	Senators	Los Angeles	Kings
Category	Player	#	Player	#
Goals	Anthony Duclair	23	Anze Kopitar	21
Assists	Thomas Chabot	33	Anze Kopitar	41
Points	Brady Tkachuk	43	Anze Kopitar	62
Shots	Brady Tkachuk	258	Jeff Carter	182
TOI/GP	Thomas Chabot	26:02	Drew Doughty	25:51

Team Stats

	Ottawa	Senators	Arizona	Coyotes
	#	Rank	#	Rank
Goals/GP	2.63	26th	2.71	23rd
Goals against/GP	3.32	28th	2.68	5th
Shots/GP	29.9	24th	31.3	18th
Shots against/GP	33.6	29th	32.3	22nd
Powerplay %	14.6	28th	18.8	20th
Penalty Kill %	78.8	20th	82.8	7th
Corsi % (5v5, Score and Venue Adjusted)	47.23	27th	48.07	26th
Fenwick % (5v5, SVA)	47.71	27th	48.19	24th