Game 60 Preview and Open Thread: Buffalo Sabres @ Ottawa Senators
Game 60 is really about #4
It’s Chris Phillips night, as Ottawa hosts the Buffalo Sabres.
Phillips #4 will be raised to the rafters before the game, the second player from the modern day franchise to get the honour. It’s a well deserved honour at that, for the player who posted 288 points, but prevented many times that many points against, over 17 seasons and 1,179 games.
It’s not all about the jersey retirement though, as there is actually a game to be played. The roster was expected to be the same as Saturday’s, with only a little bit of change in the forward lines, at least until the Dylan DeMelo trade broke. No word yet on if it will be new Senator Jayce Hawryluk dressing tonight, or if Andreas Englund will make it for game time. Also no word about how the D pairings will fall out tonight with DeMelo gone.
Namestnikov - Tierney - Brown
Ennis - White - Batherson
Paul - Anisimov - Sabourin
Chabot - ???
Reilly - Zaitsev
Hainsey - Goloubef
Anderson (starter)
Hogberg
Game Notes
- Buffalo’s playoff chances are on life support but the have reeled off three wins in a row, including a dominant win over Toronto on Sunday. Ottawa could play a significant spoiler role tonight
- Artem Anisimov is calling an Anthony Duclair goal tonight
- Roster drama is running high in Buffalo right now. Last night, the Sabres suspended Zach Bogosian for failure to report to the AHL
- The jersey retirement ceremony is scheduled for 6:30pm, with puck drop expected to be a little closer to 7:45 than the 7:30 scheduled game start. Both the ceremony and game will be carried on TSN5, but RDS2 appears to only be carrying the game
- There will be a new one tonight, but I’ll leave you with the Phillips tribute video from the day he retired from the league/
Here are some statistics, from NHL.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
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 | Los Angeles | Kings | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | Rank | # | Rank | |
| Goals/GP | 2.69 | 24th | 2.52 | 30th |
| Goals against/GP | 3.36 | 30th | 3.00 | 14th |
| Shots/GP | 30.7 | 21st | 33.1 | 5th |
| Shots against/GP | 33.5 | 29th | 29.8 | 6th |
| Powerplay % | 14.3 | 31st | 16.9 | 26th |
| Penalty Kill % | 76.1 | 26th | 77.1 | 26th |
| Corsi % (5v5, Score and Venue Adjusted) | 48.25 | 26th | 53.13 | 4th |
| xGF% (5v5, SVA) | 49.74 | 19th | 51.94 | 8th |