Game 63 Preview and Open Thread: Ottawa Senators @ New York Islanders

The Ottawa Senators roll into New York off the heels of an embarrassing loss to the Canadiens, and a somewhat head-scratching trade deadline. Gone are Nick Paul, Josh Brown, and Zach Stanford; in are Mathieu Joseph, Travis Hamonic, Zach Senyshyn, and Michael McNiven. The Islanders, for their part, have won 5 of their last 7.

There was no morning skate, so we’re left to guess a little bit about lines. We know that Mathieu Joseph will draw in, and will likely get showcased in the top six. We also know that Travis Hamonic will join the team in Winnipeg, and won’t play tonight. Michael Del Zotto has been called up, and the newly-extended Anton Forsberg looks to get the start. Here is the Locked on Senators Podcast’s estimate at tonight’s lines:

No morning skate for the #Sens today, so we're taking our best guess at line combos.

Thoughts? #GoSensGo pic.twitter.com/yi0JMBMFU3

— Locked On Senators (@SensCentral) March 22, 2022

Some Thoughts:

• Uncle Delly returns after scoring 27 points in 26 games in the AHL. Amazingly, he only had 11 games in the AHL before this season. By my recollection, he wasn’t great in the NHL, but he brings a skillset (ability to puckhandle) that Zaitsev and J.Brown don’t. I’m wondering if there’s any awkwardness between Coach DJ Smith and Del Zotto, or if it’s only management that’s been down on him.
• Erik Brännström and Artem Zub have positive possession numbers together (53.7% 5v5 shot-attempts for, via Natural Stat Trick), while both are below 50% without each other. I’m not sure these two are who you want for your first pairing, but they at least seem to be competent together.
• The Sens have 22 wins on the season, and are .395 (.355 if you count all OT and SO losses as losses). Anton Forsberg has 14 wins, and is .538 (or .500 if all losses are losses). I can complain about the extension all I want, but he has been shockingly good for the Sens this season. If it weren’t for the issues with Andrew Hammond and Mike Condon after a single season of good results, I would probably be happy with his extension.
• Mathieu Joseph already seems to get it, saying he loves the vibes in Ottawa
• The Isles for their part locked up Zach Parise and Cal Clutterbuck on one-year extensions yesterday because, I guess, the Isles like locking up older players with mediocre results? Though, the two of them together are making less than Travis Hamonic next year, so can I really complain?
• The game start time is 7:30 PM ET, with coverage on TSN5, RDS2, MSG+, and TSN1200/

Statistics:

via NHL.com and NaturalStatTrick.com

Team Stats

Player Stats