Game #14 Hub: Ottawa Senators @ Boston Bruins

Let's play a game. Here are the 5-on-5 shot attempts and expected goals of Ottawa's four games in November. Can you guess which one they won?

• Game #1: 71.26% CF%, 68.24% xG%
• Game #2: 46.75% CF%, 58.00% xG%
• Game #3: 54.46% CF%, 52.43% xG%
• Game #4: 57.58% CF%, 56.97% xG%

Yes, I've watched the games, and yes, there are familiar patterns of defensive collapses, untimely goaltending miscues, and poor special teams play, but let's consider this, too: it feels like most of the battle for both the players and the fans is mental right now.

One win in four November games sets up a hell of a Saturday night tilt against the Boston Bruins – a team that has played poorly this season but finds themselves three points up on the Sens because They Know How To Win or something. If Ottawa wanted a chance to seize the pen and start to rewrite the narrative, this is it.

Here's how the Sens lined up at practice yesterday, with Tim Stützle having a maintenance day but expected to play while Shane Pinto continues to recover from injury:

Meanwhile, here's how Jim Montgomery's Bruins lined up at practice yesterday:

Game Notes:

• A sign that the Bruins have struggled this season? They've had to split up Marchand and Pastrnak to spread the wealth throughout the team's top two lines, and summoned the ghost of Tyler Johnson to provide a spark. The same pattern repeats itself on the backend, with Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm expected to each lead a pairing alongside Nikita Zadorov and Brandon Carlo.
• Please ignore the fact that Mark Kastelic has 7 points in 15 games.
• Boston has received average goaltending from the Swayman-Korpisalo tandem, with Swayman giving up 1.4 more goals than expected and Korpisalo having saved 0.6 more than expected. Swayman is 4-5-1 with a .894 save percentage in 10 games.
• Ullmark has given up 3.9 more goals than expected this season, and is 2-4-0 with a .892 save percentage in seven games.
• It'll be interesting to see if the Sens can take advantage of Boston's new lines. In particular, Stützle against Zacha or Norris against Lindholm. Speaking of Norris, here's a nice article on his recovery from shoulder surgery from NHL.com's Dan Rosen.
• While both teams are struggling on the penalty kill, the Sens possess the fourth-ranked powerplay while the Bruins are down at... 30th. An opportunity.

Stats:

• from NHL.com and NaturalStatTrick.com:

You can catch tonight's game at 7:00pm ET on NHLN, CITY, or NESN