The Ottawa Senators should have their batteries recharged a bit after a day off in South Florida and they will look to translate that onto the ice tonight as they face divisional opponent Florida.
Both teams are coming in off losses in the Metro New York area on Sunday, Ottawa falling 4-1 to the Rangers and the Panthers dropping a 4-2 decision to the Devils. Florida was riding a 5 game winning streak that brought them within 3 points of the Senators and certainly right in the middle of the playoff hut as they have passed their in-state rival Lightning.
The Senators are catching the Panthers in their first home game following a successful 5 game road trip (4-1), so they hope that the trend of teams struggling in that situation, however inexplicable it is, continues.
The Senators don't want to turn this into a special teams battle, as their power plays are relatively close but the Senators' penalty killing continues to struggle, and combined with their penchant for taking penalties often leads to them getting into trouble.
Ottawa scores about half a goal more per game on average than the Panthers, and they have 5 players in the top 32 of NHL scoring. On the flipside, those 5 players all have more points than the ageless Jaromir Jagr, who leads his team with 20 points. The Panthers do their scoring by committee, as they have 10 players with 10 or more points as opposed to the more top-heavy Senators who have 6.
At the other end, the Panthers have the edge in terms of goal prevention, allowing almost half a goal less per game than the Senators. The Panthers aren't exactly lock-down in their own end, as they allow the 7th most shots per game in the league (and it is a well-known and discussed fact that Ottawa allows the most).
This game features the top two rookies from last season, as Aaron Ekblad and Mark Stone will go at each other. Ekblad leads the Panthers blue line with 12 points and is second on the team with a +6 rating.
With the Rangers silencing all of the Senators' big guns on Sunday, the likes of Karlsson, Turris, Ryan, Hoffman and Stone will all be looking to kickstart their offensive games once again.
It should be Craig Anderson facing Roberto Luongo between the pipes, which would mark the 12th straight start for Anderson as the wait for Andrew Hammond's return continues. It has been almost a month since anyone but Anderson has manned the Senators crease (Nov 12th vs Van). Anderson is 11-4-1 in his career against his former team, while the Senators have had the edge against Luongo, who has a 11-13 record against Ottawa with a 2.83 GAA and .921 SP.
Today also marks the 1 year anniversary of the Senators letting Paul MacLean go and Dave Cameron assuming the head coaching duties. In his year behind the bench he has coached the equivalent of a full season (82 games) and has a record of 46-23-13 which would amount to a 105 point season and the 6th most points accumulated in that time.
Cameron has done this in the face of injuries, lack of depth and a patchwork defense and deserves a lot of credit for the job he has done. While the miraculous run of last season made a great feel-good story out of Andrew Hammond, Cameron's influence was overshadowed and he continues to push the right buttons on most nights given what he has to work with game to game.