The Senators host the struggling Calgary Flames, who will give Dustin Wolf a rare night off.
The Ottawa Senators will try to get back on track on Thursday night as they host the last-place Calgary Flames at Canadian Tire Centre. The Senators are coming off a 7-3 loss in Chicago against the Blackhawks on Tuesday night.
Before that loss, which came in a back-to-back situation with travel in between, the Sens had been playing excellent hockey for the past week and a half, winning their three previous games. The Senators scored seven goals in two of those three wins (a 7-1 win at Washington on Saturday, 7-2 over Boston on Monday), and their power play ranks second in the NHL at 32%.
The Sens hope to make the Chicago loss a mere anomaly and return to form against the Flames, who stand dead last in the NHL with a disastrous record of 2-8-1 and have missed the playoffs for the past three years.
At their game-day skate on Thursday morning, the Sens’ line combinations looked like this:
Cousins–Stützle–Batherson
Greig–Cozens–Perron
Amadio–Pinto–Giroux
MacDermid–Eller–Zetterlund
Lycksell
Sanderson–Zub
Chabot–Jensen
Kleven–Spence
Matinpalo
Ullmark
Merilainen
The game marks the return of defenseman Jordan Spence, who’s been a healthy scratch for the past 12 days since his giveaway against the New York Islanders led to the winning goal in the final minute by Anders Lee.
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Tough guy Kurtis MacDermid draws into the lineup as well, but other than that, the chess pieces will align as they did in Chicago, with Linus Ullmark starting again. He hopes to improve on his .858 save percentage, which is 58th-best in the NHL right now.
Through 11 games (5-5-1), the Sens have five guys hovering at or near the point-per-game mark. Tim Stützle and Drake Batherson lead the team with 12 points apiece, followed by Jake Sanderson, Shane Pinto, and Dylan Cozens with 10.
It should be a good chance for the Sens to improve their 30th-ranked penalty-kill numbers (63.6%). They’ll face the Flames’ 31st-ranked power play (11.4%).
Here’s what the Flames’ lines looked like on Wednesday, according to Derek Wills from Sportsnet 960, who says backup Devin Cooley will start in goal. Cooley has started only one game this season, compared to Dustin Wolf, who's been a workhorse with 10.
Huberdeau–Kadri–Frost
Zary–Sharangovich–Farabee
Honzek–Backlund–Coleman
Lomberg–Kirkland–Klapka
Coronato
Bahl–Andersson
Hanley–Weegar
Bean–Pachal
Parekh
Cooley
Wolf
Faceoff is 7:00 pm Eastern (SNW, RDS, TSN5).
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