Game 70 preview: Toronto Maple Leafs @ Ottawa Senators
A preview of the game between the Ottawa Senators and the Toronto Maple Leafs on 12 March 2016.
After finally ending his four-game pointless streak, Erik Karlsson will get back into the thick of things in the fight for third place in the NHL scoring race. Karlsson enters tonight's game against Toronto tied for third with Tyler Seguin at 70 points each, with both players having 13 games remaining.
Meanwhile the rest of the Senators will keep playing because apparently the NHL makes you play all 82 games. With the Senators ninth last in the league currently, that is probably the lowest they can fall realistically. The eighth last Coyotes are five points behind Ottawa.
Ottawa will make a couple of changes with Chris Wideman and Nick Paul returning for Patrick Wiercioch and Matt Puempel. Craig Anderson will start. Here is the lineup.
Smith - Pageau - Stone
Hoffman - Zibanejad - Chiasson
Dzingel - Gomez - Ryan
Paul - Lazar - Neil
Methot - Karlsson
Phaneuf - Ceci
Kostka - Wideman
Anderson (starter)
Hammond
Some notes for tonight:
- Erik Karlsson needs 14 assists in 13 games to break Jason Spezza's club record for assists in a single season.
- Erik Karlsson needs two assists in 13 games to break Erik Karlsson's club records for assists in a single season by a defenceman.
- Erik Karlsson needs nine points in 13 games to break Erik Karlsson's club records for points in a single season by a defenceman.
- The Senators had 99 points last season. They will finish the season with 96 points if they win their final 13 games.
- Ottawa is 3-0 against the Leafs this year. Karlsson had seven assists in the first two games before being held off the scoreboard last week.
- Craig Anderson has allowed 17 goals on 135 shots over his last four starts.
- Cody Ceci needs three more points to beat last year's total of 21 points.
- Zack Smith is now only two goals behind Bobby Ryan for second on the team goal scoring race. He is eighth with 98 shots.
- Colin Greening has six points and 28 shots on goals in 14 games with Toronto.
- We will be put out of our misery four weeks from tonight in the season finale in Boston./
Here are some stats for the two teams tonight. All stats are from NHL.com except Corsi and Fenwick are from www.puckon.net. Note that Corsi is now adjusted for score as well as the venue and event type.
| Category | Ottawa | Toronto | ||
| Player | # | Player | # | |
| Goals | Mike Hoffman | 25 | Leo Komarov | 19 |
| Assists | Erik Karlsson | 58 | Nazem Kadri | 25 |
| Points | Erik Karlsson | 70 | Nazem Kadri | 37 |
| Shots | Erik Karlsson | 211 | Nazem Kadri | 228 |
| Average Ice time | Erik Karlsson | 29:07 | Morgan Rielly | 22:43 |
| Category | Ottawa | Toronto | ||
| # | Rank | # | Rank | |
| Goals For | 2.78 | 8th | 2.32 | 29th |
| Goals Against | 3.07 | 28th | 2.89 | 24th |
| Event, Score and venue adjusted Corsi % | 47.6% | 22nd | 50.1% | 18th |
| Event, Score and venue adjusted Fenwick % | 47.0% | 24th | 48.9% | 21st |
| Shots For | 28.4 | 27th | 31.4 | 4th |
| Shots Against | 33.4 | 30th | 30.4 | 19th |
