Game 72 preview: Ottawa Senators @ Florida Panthers

After finally winning a game, the Ottawa Senators will try to do it again when they visit the Florida Panthers tonight. More importantly than a win, Erik Karlsson is on a seven-game points scoring streak and is within a point of breaking into the top ten in NHL scoring.

Patrick Wiercioch will play for the injured Chris Phillips and Robin Lehner will start again with Craig Anderson backing him up.

Here are the lines:

Michalek - Spezza - Hemsky
MacArthur - Turris - Stone
Greening - Smith - Neil
Hoffman - Zibanejad - Condra

Methot - Karlsson
Cowen - Gryba
Wiercioch - Ceci

Lehner (starter)
Anderson

Some Erik Karlsson notes for tonight:

• Erik has averaged 27:44 over his 7-game scoring streak, putting up 27 shots, three goals and eight assists. The three goals have all come in the last three games. This means he is also on a three-game goal scoring streak.
• The Senators have a 56.4% Corsi during 5-on-5 play with Karlsson on the ice over the seven games. With Karlsson off the ice, the Senators had a 51.3% Corsi.
• Despite missing most of last season, Karlsson has 27 more points than any other NHL defenceman from the start of 2011-2012. He has 160 points in 169 games in that span.
• This season Karlsson leads all defencemen in points and goals and is two behind Duncan Keith in assists. He also leads in even strength points, even strength goals and is third in even strength assists. He's second in power play points among defencemen and seventh among all players. Karlsson's 230 shots are also second among defencemen.
• Karlsson has 20 goals which is equal to the number of combined goals by the other six defenceman on the roster.
• Karlsson has scored or assisted on Ottawa's last five goals. It has been over seven periods since the Senators scored a goal without Karlsson getting a point./

Some notes on Karlsson's minions:

• After some rough outings, Robin Lehner has rebounded by stopping 76 out of 82 shots in the last two games. That's a 92.7 save percentage.
• The Senators have allowed 234 goals in 71 games. The Islanders have allowed the most with 235 in 71 games.
• Chris Neil has 0 points and 10 shots in his last 10 games. He also has taken six minor penalties in those 10 games. For the season, Neil has taken 51 minor penalties and drawn 29. That penalty difference of -22 is almost half of the team's total difference of -48. Neil has taken 100 minor penalties in 123 games including the playoffs from the start of last season. He has drawn 57 in that span.
• After a very hot start, Ales Hemsky has just one point in five games. He has only had one shot on goal in the last two.
• Milan Michalek has played every game this year. He has seven points in his last eight games./

Here are some stats for the two teams tonight.