Coming off a hard-fought loss to Nashville on Thursday, the Ottawa Senators head to MSG to take on the Rangers. The Sens ran these lines at practice yesterday (notes to follow):

Friday morning practice lines:
(No Batherson or Hamonic)

Tkachuk Norris Joseph
Formenton Stützle Gaudette
Kelly White Brown
Gambrell Kastelic Watson
Tierney

Brannstrom Zub
Holden Zaitsev
Del Zotto Mete

— TSN 1200 (@TSN1200) April 8, 2022

From the same TSN1200 thread, DJ Smith will start Anton Forsberg tonight. Dylan Gambrell could return to the lineup while Drake Batherson remains out with the same non-COVID illness, and Tim Stützle continues to sit as the team monitors his ailing knee (thanks a lot, Montreal). The Sens have returned Cole Reinhardt to Belleville after his NHL debut. Travis Hamonic missed yesterday’s skate but only for a maintenance day (he literally just got here but what do I know). Mathieu Joseph is on fire.

The Rags shut out the Pens 3-0 on Thursday night and ran these lines at practice yesterday:

#NYR practice lines:

Kreider - Zib - Vatrano
Panarin - Strome - Copp
Laf - Goodrow - Kakko
Hunt - Rooney - Reaves
McKegg - Brodzinski - Gauthier

— Vince Z. Mercogliano (@vzmercogliano) April 8, 2022

From the same Vince Mercogliano thread, Kaapo Kakko and Kevin Rooney could return to the New York lineup with Tyler Motte and Filip Chytil sustaining injuries last week. For those wondering, the Rangers defence looked like this last game: Lindgren-Fox, Miller-Trouba, and Nemeth-Schneider.

Game Notes

• At the time of writing this, I hadn’t seen a confirmed starter for New York but suffice to say the Senators would rather see Alexandar Georgiev than the odds-on favourite to win the Vezina, Igor Shesterkin.
• Looking at the stats, Ottawa generates more five-on-five offence (Corsi/expected goals (per naturalstattrick) while New York has better five-on-five defensive rates and better five-on-five save percentage.
• The Rangers allow less on the penalty kill (again going by Corsi/expected goals rates) but surprisingly Ottawa has better PK goaltending.
• Given their skill at the top of their lineup, it should come as no surprise that the Rangers generate more on the powerplay than the Senators so Ottawa might want to stay as disciplined as possible./

Where to watch/listen: SN360/City, TVAS2, TSN1200 @7PMEST

Stats

Players

Game 71	Ottawa	Senators	New York	Rangers
Category	Player	#	Player	#
Goals	Josh Norris	31	Chris Kreider	47
Assists	Brady Tkachuk	29	Artemi Panarin	65
Points	Brady Tkachuk	53	Artemi Panarin	85
Shots	Brady Tkachuk	240	Chris Kreider	226
TOI	Thomas Chabot	26:22	Adam Fox	24:04

Teams

Game 71	Ottawa	Senators	New York	Rangers
Category	Rank	#	Rank	#
Goals	26th	2.67	18th	2.97
Goals against	23rd	3.19	3rd	2.51
Shots	20th	30.10	30th	28.50
Shots against	26th	32.92	14th	30.79
Powerplay	22nd	19.1%	2nd	26.6%
Penalty Kill	13th	80.5%	9th	81.6%
Corsi (5V5SVA)	21st	48.1%	23rd	47.0%
xGoals (5V5SVA)	23rd	47.2%	24th	46.9%