Game 71 Preview: St. Louis Blues @ Ottawa Senators
The rare late season double-debut
The big news for tonight’s game is a pair of NHL debuts for the Senators. We were expecting Max Veronneau to get his first game tonight, but on a call with Season Ticket holders, Dorion dropped the news that Erik Brannstrom has been recalled and will also be making his first big league appearance. Cody Goloubef has also been recalled
The move to recall Brannstrom came due to Mark Borowiecki being out for tonight’s game due to illness. Boro was initially listed as a game time decision. Colin White is day-to-day and isn’t expected to play. Christian Jaros is questionable for tonight, which is why Goloubef is up. To round out the injury and illness news for tonight, the big one - Thomas Chabot has a broken toe and while he is officially week-to-week there’s a decent chance of him being done for the season.
Today’s expected lines:
Boedker - Paajarvi - Gibbons
Balcers - Tierney - Ryan
Smith - Lindberg - Veronneau
Wolanin - Ceci
Harpur - Jaros/Goloubef
Brannstrom - DeMelo
Nilsson (starter)
Anderson
Game Notes
- With the double debut, how are they going to handle the traditional hot laps?
- Feels a little strange to say, but hopefully Brannstrom is sent back down after tonight so he can get back to playing in meaningful games for the B-Sens
- It’s been quite the turn-around for the Blues after Craig Berube took the team over 50 games ago, but you’ve also got to note the play of Jordan Binnington and the rookie’s .928 SV% (3rd on the NHL’s leader board today)
- That said, Binnington has struggled in March with a .868 SV% - though that’s only three games
- A feel-good story out of the Blues side of things today - after being in the news last May for all the wrong reasons, the First Nation Elites Bantam AAA hockey team will be attending tonight’s game as guests of Ryan O’Reilly and his parents/
Here are some stats, courtesy of Natural Stat Trick and NHL.com:
Team Stats
| Ottawa | Senators | St. Louis | Blues | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Category | Value | Rank | Value | Rank |
| Goals/GP | 2.93 | 18th | 2.87 | 19th |
| Goals Against/GP | 3.71 | 31st | 2.75 | 7th |
| Shots/GP | 29.9 | 23rd | 31.6 | 16th |
| Shots Against/GP | 36.0 | 31st | 28.6 | 3rd |
| Powerplay % | 20.0 | 14th | 20.4 | 13th |
| Penalty Kill % | 79.4 | 22nd | 80.8 | 13th |
| Corsi (5v5, Score & Venue Adjusted) | 44.49 | 31st | 51.61 | 9th |
| Fenwick (5v5, SVA) | 45.01 | 31st | 52.36 | 9th |
Player Stats
| Ottawa | Senators | St. Louis | Blues | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| -- | Player | # | Player | # |
| Goals | Brady Tkachuk | 16 | Vladimir Tarasenko | 28 |
| Assists | Thomas Chabot | 36 | Ryan O'Reilly | 41 |
| Points | Thomas Chabot | 49 | Ryan O'Reilly | 67 |
| Shots | Brady Tkachuk | 170 | Vladimir Tarasenko | 235 |
| TOI/GP | Thomas Chabot | 24:03 | Alex Pietrangelo | 23:51 |