The Senators will look to continue their recent trend of alternating between good result and bad result from game to game, as they will face the Wild in Minnesota. They are coming off of a crazy 7-5 loss to the Florida Panthers on Monday, and before that they actually had their second winning streak of the season by beating the Penguins and Red Wings. Besides those two wins though, it's been quite the roller coaster since their overtime loss against Tampa Bay.
Here are their results in those 8 games: OTL, W, L, W, L, W, W, L. I'm hoping that tonight will be a win so they can continue this back and forth.
This is how the two teams stack up against each other:
Minnesota: 12-7-2 (3rd Central, 3rd West) GF/game: 3.1 (16th) GA/game: 2.67 (7th) PP%: 21.7% (12th) PK: 84.9% (3rd) CF%: 49.23% (20th) Goal differential: +8 Last 10: 6-4-0 Leading goal scorer: Mikael Granlund (10) Leading point scorer: Mikael Granlund (19) Player to look out for: Jason Zucker
Devan Dubnyk will start.
The Wild don't really have a ton of firepower, but their top-six is better than most people think, plus they have four underrated defensemen as well. Jason Zucker is my player to watch as he is extremely under-appreciated around the league. He's up to 14 points in 21 games, and is second on the Wild in shots with 65. He can do it all, and I'm sure he'll be noticeable throughout the game. Dubnyk has also quietly put up another high SV% of .925%, and this team shouldn't be taken lightly. Ottawa: 9-9-3 (11th East) GF/game: 3.57 (1st) GA/game: 4.19 (31st) PP%: 25.0% (7th) PK: 68.2% (31st) CF%: 43.54% (31st) Goal differential:-13 Last 10: 5-4-1 Leading goal scorer: Matt Duchene (10) Leading point scorer: Matt Duchene (27) Player to look out for: Drake Batherson
Here are the possible lines for tonights game in Minnesota.
— Dean Brown (@PxPOttawa) November 21, 2018
Boedker Duchene Batherson
Tkachuk Tierney Stone
Dzingel White Ryan
Paajarvi Smith Pyatt
Chabot DeMelo
Lajoie Ceci
Borowiecki Jaros
Anderson starts.
I don't like seeing Mikkel Boedker in the top-six instead of Ryan Dzingel, but I won't complain too much if Batherson is still being paired up with Duchene. Batherson is definitely my player to watch tonight for the Senators, as he looks to keep up his three-game point streak to begin his career in which he already has five points. The Lajoie-Ceci is somehow still together despite horrendous results, and I wonder how long that will last for Guy Boucher.
The fourth line is also a black hole on offense with Tom Pyatt and Magnus Paajarvi yet to get a point on a non-empty net goal, but at least Boucher is keeping them contained on one line. Ottawa has a pretty abysmal record of 2-5-1 on the road so far, and they're looking to buck that trend.
Puck-drop tonight is at 8:00 EST, so get your homework done early today, kids. Make sure to follow along in the comments!