The Ottawa Senators will have a difficult time outperforming themselves in terms of entertainment value after a 5-4 overtime win on Tuesday night. Although technically a division rival, the Panthers hardly feel like any more of a nemesis than the Devils (especially given the disparity in the standings between Florida and Ottawa) but naturally the Sens will want to wrap up their home schedule on a positive note. Filip Gustavsson projects to get the start at home. The Sens went with these lines and pairings last game:

After going almost a month without a loss, the Cats have suddenly lost two in a row but then again with home ice advantage locked up through the Eastern Conference post-season, I don’t think anyone in Florida has lost much sleep. Spencer Knight will start in Ottawa tonight and the Panthers went with these lines and pairings last game:

Game Notes

• Today I learned that the Cats have only used two goalies this season (!) and it kind of put into perspective how badly Ottawa has suffered at the mandibles of the injury bug this year.
• Speaking of injuries, of note, Florida could lack the services of Radko Gudas, Anton Lundell, and Aaron Ekblad (LTIR) tonight.
• For the Senators, it looks like Colin White, Connor Brown, Mathieu Joseph, Shane Pinto, and Tyler Ennis will all miss the final home game of the season.
• We can also conclude definitively that Jake Sanderson will not get to play in front of fans in Ottawa this season.
• Florida could potentially clinch the President’s Trophy tonight.
• Statistically Florida obviously has the advantage almost across the board but Ottawa has the better penalty kill save percentage (89.2), powerplay shooting percentage (13.1), and powerplay xGF/60 (7.67) so at least they can possibly keep special teams interesting.
• Stats as always courtesy of naturalstattrick/

Where to watch/listen: TSN5 RDS2 TSN1200 @ 7PM EST

Stats

Players

Game 81	Ottawa	Senators	Florida	Panthers
Category	Player	#	Player	#
Goals	Josh Norris	34	Aleksander Barkov	39
Assists	Brady Tkachuk	36	Jonathan Huberdeau	85
Points	Brady Tkachuk	65	Jonathan Huberdeau	115
Shots	Brady Tkachuk	277	Sam Bennett	237
TOI	Thomas Chabot	26:14	Aaron Ekblad	24:54

Teams

Game 81	Ottawa	Senators	Florida	Panthers
Category	Rank	#	Rank	#
Goals	25th	2.72	1st	4.08
Goals against	23rd	3.19	12th	2.86
Shots	20th	29.73	1st	36.92
Shots against	27th	33.13	9th	30.23
Powerplay	20th	19.5%	7th	24.4%
Penalty Kill	13th	80.7%	15th	79.5%
Corsi (5V5SVA)	21st	47.7%	2nd	57.3%
xGoals (5V5SVA)	24th	47.0%	2nd	56.5%