The game on Monday between the Ottawa Senators and the Arizona Coyotes was a strange one. The Senators outshot the Coyotes 43-15 yet somehow lost 5-3. They deserved a better fate, yet as has been the story for much of the season, they failed to get the job done. It left a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths, including an incredibly frustrated Brady Tkachuk:

Brady Tkachuk made his feelings clear tonight as well.

“I feel like you can always look at the positives and what you did in the game, but I think everybody's sick and tired of losing.”

— Ian Mendes (@ian_mendes) March 15, 2022

It’s good to see that he and the team actually care because we’re now at the point where they are on pace for just 65 points this season...And last season they were on pace for 75. Ottawa has lost two games in a row, and they are hoping to turn things around tonight against a sub-par Columbus Blue Jackets team. A good stretch of games has to start somewhere, right?

Here is how the Senators lined up at practice yesterday, with the only change (as of now) being that Anton Forsberg will start:

Sens Tuesday practice lines.

Tkachuk Norris CBrown
Formenton Stützle Ennis
Paul White Sanford
Kelly Tierney Watson
Gaudette Gambrell

Chabot Zaitsev
Holden Zub
Brannstrom JBrown
Mete

Gustavsson
Forsberg

— TSN 1200 (@TSN1200) March 15, 2022

Game Notes

• This is the second matchup between the Blue Jackets and Senators this season. Ottawa won the first game 2-1 in Columbus on January 23rd.
• DJ Smith had some interesting comments regarding Nikita Zaitsev and Josh Brown, as he tried his best to defend them:/

Smith - Its easy to always harp on the stay at home guys (Zaitsev, JBrown). Last year people went after Gudbranson and now he is in Calgary playing 20 minutes a game on a very good team.

— TSN 1200 (@TSN1200) March 15, 2022

It strikes me as an odd thing to say because he’s essentially saying Erik Gudbranson is doing better away from DJ. Nevertheless, a lot of people were upset by this evaluation, and I get why. I’d just like to see some accountability towards those two who have consistently been an issue on the right side. Lassi Thomson and Jacob-Bernard Docker haven’t been world-beaters, but they probably deserve more of a chance in games.

• Drake Batherson should be back in the lineup on March 26th or 29th, which is great news.
• Josh Norris has six goals in his last six games, with two multi-goal performances. Can he keep up the hot pace?
• The Senators should be praying that Nick Paul doesn’t get hurt if they aren’t close to re-signing him. I wonder if he sits out on Thursday and Saturday before the trade deadline if nothing has happened before then.
• The Blue Jackets have won their past two games (against Vegas and Minnesota), but overall they have 30 wins and 30 losses. In other words, a very beatable team.
• Patrik Laine is having a big bounceback season with 43 points in 41 games. The 23-year-old is an RFA in the off-season and Columbus might be looking to move him—I wonder if Ottawa would be interested at all, but the price tag would obviously be very high./

Player Stats

Team Stats