Five things to watch for when the Calgary Flames take on the Ottawa Senators:
1. A big time mismatch Generally Cody Ceci's pairing draws the toughs at home. Last night was no different as he played more against Ryan O'Reilly's unit than any other defender.
Unless Guy Boucher switches his game plan entirely within 24 hours, it seems like a good bet Ceci and Ben Harpur will take on Calgary's top line tonight.
They have controlled less than 42% of the attempts and 31% of the goals in 141 minutes together at 5v5 so trotting them out vs Johnny Gaudreau and co. is maybe not the best idea. The top line could very well go off again tonight.
2. Ottawa's penalty kill The Sens don't take a ton of penalties but they struggle to avoid disaster when they do. They rank in the bottom third in terms of shot suppression and only four teams allow more goals/60 while down a man.
Calgary's power play has been quite potent since Douglas Hamilton IV become a regular on the top unit so I think this is a spot where they could make some noise.
3. Hamilton vs Karlsson Tonight two of the most offensively gifted defensemen in the league will square off in Hamilton and Erik Karlsson, both of whom enter play scorching hot.
Hamilton has 12 points, 58 shots, and a league-leading 125 attempts over his last 15 games while Karlsson has 16 points, 36 shots, and 105 attempts (4th) during that same span.
Both guys are effortless skaters, like to jump into the rush, and shoot a ton so look for them to be very involved in this one.
4. David Rittich The last few weeks for him were not good. The last start, however, was good. He stopped 25-26 and looked a lot more calm and collected than we've seen in recent weeks. It wasn't a difficult start but he still did what he was supposed to do and he deserves credit for that. Ottawa isn't a big threat, either, so perhaps he can put together another quality start and really feel good about himself by the time he plays the high powered Islanders on Sunday (assuming Mike Smith isn't back).
5. The 3rd line Mark Jankowski and Sam Bennett like to do this thing where they go missing in action for weeks then look dominant for a few games out of nowhere. They were excellent vs the Sabres and I think this is another good spot for them tonight given Ottawa's depth, or lack thereof.
Here are the projected lineups:
Calgary
Johnny Gaudreau - Sean Monahan - Micheal Ferland Matthew Tkachuk - Mikael Backlund - Michael Frolik Sam Bennett - Mark Jankowski - Garnet Hathaway Curtis Lazar - Matt Stajan - Troy Brouwer
Mark Giordano - Dougie Hamilton T.J. Brodie - Travis Hamonic Brett Kulak - Michael Stone
David Rittich
Ottawa (via DailyFaceoff.com)
Magnus Paajarvi - J.G. Pageau - Mark Stone Ryan Dzingel - Matt Duchene - Mike Hoffman Bobby Ryan - Zack Smith - Marian Gaborik Max McCormick - Tom Pyatt - Alex Burrows
Frederik Claesson - Erik Karlsson Ben Harpur - Cody Ceci Mark Borowiecki - Thomas Chabot
Mike Condon
Puck drop is just after 7:30 eastern and can be seen on SNW, TSN5, RDS.
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