Game 13 Preview: Sens @ Sabres
Ottawa play an afternoon rematch with Buffalo
Some of you may have forgotten that the Ottawa Senators were playing the Buffalo Sabres at 2 p.m this afternoon instead of the usual Saturday evening start. Certainly not this author, who is definitely not scrambling to write a preview in fifteen minutes instead of leisurely perusing the teams’ sites and social media for what he thought was an article that would go up around 4 p.m. That is definitely not what is happening here!
The Sens broke a losing streak on Thursday against these same Sabres despite allowing nearly a million shots in the third period. Craig Anderson was good, the rest of the team was pretty okay at best. The Sabres have Jack Eichel and Jeff Skinner who looked terrifying and Rasmus Dahlin who skated very smoothly but wasn’t otherwise a factor.
I don’t have time to give any more coherent commentary!
The Sens are projected to play with 11 forwards and 7 defensemen because Guy Boucher views this as a key tactical advantage that can be leveraged to win hockey games. That means Erik Burgdoerfer will draw in but Jack Rodewald will not play.
I have no idea if this is a good idea or not because I literally read it twenty seconds ago!
Here are some stats about the two teams:
Team Stats
| Category | Ottawa | Senators | Tampa Bay | Lightning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| -- | Value | Rank | Value | Rank |
| Goals/GP | 3.23 | 11th | 3.46 | 6th |
| Goals Against/GP | 4.23 | 31st | 2.69 | 6th |
| Shots/GP | 28.2 | 27th | 33.8 | 4th |
| Shots Against/GP | 38.7 | 31st | 31.9 | 16th |
| Powerplay % | 24.4 | 11th | 26.1 | 6th |
| Penalty Kill % | 38.9 | 29th | 93.9 | 1st |
| Corsi (5v5, Score & Venue Adjusted) | 42.46 | 30th | 52.86 | 7th |
| Fenwick (5v5, SVA) | 42.79 | 29th | 52.11 | 7th |
Player Stats
| Ottawa | Senators | New Jersey | Devils | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| -- | Player | # | Player | # |
| Goals | Ryan Dzingel | 5 | Kyle Palmieri | 9 |
| Assists | Thomas Chabot | 14 | Taylor Hall | 12 |
| Points | Thomas Chabot | 17 | Kyle Palmieri | 15 |
| Shots | Lajoie, Maxime | 35 | Taylor Hall | 40 |
| TOI/GP | Thomas Chabot | 22:34 | Sami Vatanen | 23:06 |
This preview is over!
