The Senators say they're "back to normal" after last week's long, sleep-schedule-destroying road trip to Sweden.
The Matchup: New York Islanders (7-6-5, fifth in the Atlantic) at Ottawa Senators (8-7-0, last in the Atlantic)
The Time and Place: Friday, November 24th, 2023, 7:30 pm. (TSN5, RDS)
The Islanders: The Islanders are in the same boat as the Senators: one game over .500 and outside of the playoffs, looking in. The Isles won 3-2 over the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday. Ilya Sorokin made 34 saves, but Semyon Varlamov will start tonight.
23-year-old defenceman Noah Dobson is the Isles' co-leader in points, tied with Mat Barzal at 15.
Enforcer Matt Martin is out with an upper-body injury.
The Senators: Ottawa has won three games in a row, scattered over 13 days. Two of the wins came in Sweden last week. They last went to Sweden in 2017, when they returned home and lost 12 of their next 13 games.
Because of the trip, no team has played fewer games than the Senators, who will pay the price, cramming 15 games in December and 15 more in January.
The Sens have recalled goalie Mads Sogaard and forward Matt Highmore from Belleville. Joonas Korpisalo will miss his second straight game with an undisclosed injury listed as day-to-day. Anton Forsberg gets the start in goal. The club is still without Thomas Chabot, Ridly Greig, and Mark Kastelic.
Assistant coach Bob Jones returns behind the bench. Daniel Alfredsson stood in for him in the two games in Sweden.
The Senators are the fourth-best goal-scoring team in the league at 3.73 per game. The Islanders are 30th at 2.56.
History: The Islanders won the last meeting 3-2 in New York on October 26th, in a game remembered for Erik Brannstrom being stretchered off with a concussion after slamming his head on the ice. J.G. Pageau returns to his hometown to face the team he spent eight years with. The popular former Senator is off to a very slow start, still looking for his first goal to go with his five assists and a minus 7 in 18 games. For some reason, the Sens always seem to be slump busters for guys like that. Julien Gauthier, who had a brief stint with the Sens last season, will likely be a healthy scratch in his return to Ottawa.
Probable Lines:
Islanders
Mathew Barzal - Bo Horvat - Simon Holmstrom
Pierre Engvall - Brock Nelson - Kyle Palmieri
Anders Lee - Jean-Gabriel Pageau - Oliver Wahlstrom
Hudson Fasching - Casey Cizikas - Cal Clutterbuck
Adam Pelech - Noah Dobson
Alexander Romanov - Ryan Pulock
Sebastian Aho - Scott Mayfield
Semyon Varlamov
Ilya Sorokin
Senators
Brady Tkachuk - Josh Norris - Vladimir Tarasenko
Mathieu Joseph - Tim Stützle - Claude Giroux
Dominik Kubalik - Roby Jarventie - Drake Batherson
Matthew Highmore - Rourke Chartier - Parker Kelly
Jake Sanderson - Artem Zub
Jakob Chychrun - Jacob Bernard-Docker
Erik Brannstrom - Travis Hamonic
Anton Forsberg