The Senators have had no success against the Florida Panthers this season, being outscored 14-2 over three losses.
The matchup: Ottawa Senators (34-39-4) at Florida Panthers (48-24-6), 7 p.m. (TSN5, RDS2)
The Ottawa Senators will try tonight to avoid a four-game sweep at the hands of the Florida Panthers on Tuesday night. The two clubs met last Thursday and the Senators were pushed around at home, falling 6-0 to the Panthers.
Head coach Jacques Martin is hoping for a better response in tonight's rematch.
"The fact that we played them last week, we know what to expect from them," Martin told the media. "I think with the line-up we have right now, maybe less skill but more grit in our lineup because of people being injured, hopefully we will have a response."
Let's be clear, when Martin says "more grit," he's talking exclusively about winger Boko Imama, who was called up the day after the beatdown by the Panthers.
Tim Stutzle was hurt in that game, and the Sens responded by calling up one of the strongest men in their organization the next morning. Imama will dress for his third straight game and help keep an eye on things on the fourth line.
In the late 90s and early 2000s, Martin's Ottawa teams didn't always win, but they were always ready if other teams wanted to steer a game into the gutter. Rather oddly in that game last week, the Panthers began to snarl after an obviously accidental high stick by Parker Kelly on Oliver Ekman-Larsson.
After Stutzle missed his second game of the season on Sunday, Martin says the club's top scorer isn't quite ready to go yet, but hopes he'll be ready to face the Lighting in Tampa Bay this Thursday.
Sens defenceman Thomas Chabot missed last week's game and sounded focused on a better effort against Florida this time around.
"The last game in our building was a pretty one-way game for them," Thomas Chabot told TSN 1200's Gord Wilson. "Obviously, coming back here (Florida) when there's only a few games left, we're looking forward to getting out there tonight and leaving it out there."
Senators projected lineup
Brady Tkachuk -- Ridly Greig -- Claude Giroux
Dominik Kubalik -- Shane Pinto -- Drake Batherson
Boris Katchouk -- Mathieu Joseph -- Parker Kelly
Bokondji Imama -- Mark Kastelic -- Jiri Smejkal
Jake Sanderson -- Artem Zub
Thomas Chabot -- Erik Brannstrom
Jakob Chychrun -- Jacob Bernard-Docker
Joonas Korpisalo
Anton Forsberg
Panthers projected lineup
Vladimir Tarasenko -- Aleksander Barkov -- Sam Reinhart
Nick Cousins -- Sam Bennett -- Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen -- Anton Lundell -- Evan Rodrigues
Jonah Gadjovich -- Kevin Stenlund -- Ryan Lomberg
Gustav Forsling -- Brandon Montour
Niko Mikkola -- Dmitry Kulikov
Josh Mahura -- Uvis Balinskis
Sergei Bobrovsky