Game 79 Preview and Open Thread: Montreal Canadiens @ Ottawa Senators

Sens host garbage-eaters for final time this season

Coming off a hard-fought victory in Columbus last night, the Ottawa Senators come home to host their final meeting of the season against Montreal. This game certainly feels like a trap as Ottawa plays the back half of a doubleheader against a team that has lost seven in a row and eight of its last ten. With Filip Gustavsson having played last night, we expect to see Anton Forsberg tonight. Ottawa went with these lines and pairings in Ohio:

Tkachuk - Norris - Batherson
Formenton - Stützle - Brown
Tierney - Kastelic - Gaudette
Kelly - Gambrell - Watson

Brännström - Zub
Del Zotto - Hamonic
Holden - Zaitsev

Carey Price started Montreal’s last game (a 6-3 loss to Philadelphia on Thursday) and the Habs went with these lines and pairings in that game:

Caufield - Suzuki - Anderson
Hoffman - Dvorak - Gallagher
Perreault - Poehling - Pitlick
Harvey-Pinard - Pitlick - Evans

Edmundson - Petry
Romanov - Savard
Clague - Wideman

Game notes

  • Both teams bad give up a lot on the penalty kill (8.20 and 8.13 xGA/60 respectively) but Ottawa has the better penalty kill save percentage at 88.9 to Montreal’s 84.4.
  • Ottawa has better powerplay rates (7.73 xGF/60 to Montreal’s 5.73) and better shooting results 13.0% versus 10.3.
  • Five-on-five offence looks basically identical with Ottawa at 2.34 xGF/60 to Montreal’s 2.32 and both teams shoot 7.62% at five-on-five.
  • Defensively at five-on-five, Ottawa gives up slightly less (2.60 xGA/60 to 2.81) and has the better save percentage at 91.7 to Montreal’s 90.9.
  • Stats as always courtesy of naturalstattrick/

Where to watch/listen: TVAS, SNE/CITY, TSN1200 @7PM EST

Stats

Players

Game 79OttawaSenatorsMontrealCanadiens
CategoryPlayer#Player#
GoalsJosh Norris33Nick Suzuki20
AssistsTim Stützle 33Nick Suzuki38
PointsBrady Tkachuk61Nick Suzuki58
ShotsBrady Tkachuk273Nick Suzuki184
TOIThomas Chabot26:22Jeff Petry22:05

Teams

Game 79OttawaSenatorsMontrealCanadiens
CategoryRank#Rank#
Goals26th2.6531st2.50
Goals against23rd3.1832nd3.82
Shots20th29.7524th29.28
Shots against26th32.8630th34.11
Powerplay22nd19.3%31st13.1%
Penalty Kill13th80.2%27th74.9%
Corsi (5V5SVA)21st47.8%28th45.1%
xGoals (5V5SVA)23rd47.3%31st44.0%

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