Game 24 Hub: Ottawa Senators @ Anaheim Ducks

The Sens won't have long – a 40 minute drive down the I-5 – to let last night's disappointing third period marinate.

I'll probably always carry a grudge against the Anaheim Ducks because of the role they played in the Stanley Cup Final in 2007, so it brings me no pleasure to report that both of these teams are tied in the standings at 21 points a piece. That's last place in the Pacific for Anaheim, and second-last place in the Atlantic for the Senators.

A look at anything beyond the standings points, though, suggests that these are two very different teams – and that Anaheim and Los Angeles are on opposite ends of the spectrum in terms structured play – so there's room for the Sens to take advantage despite playing tired tonight.

Lineups:

As a reminder, here's how Ottawa lined up against the Kings last night. Unless Nick Cousins draws back in, I only feel confident about stating that Linus Ullmark will get the start:

Anaheim's last time out was also against the Kings, where they lost 2-1 on Friday night. Here's how they lined up, and we're currently unsure as to whether John Gibson or Lukas Dostal will be in goal:

Game Notes:

• Take a look at the stats table below and share what you notice in the comments.
• For me? It's about how much goaltending contributes to points in the standings. Again, Ottawa and Anaheim have the same number of points despite the Sens having markedly better players and team numbers across the board – outside of goals against per game, where the Ducks rank 10th and the Sens rank 27th.
• Since returning from an appendectomy, John Gibson is 4-0-1 – posting save percentages of 0.938 or better in three of those starts. 24-year-old Lukas Dostàl sports a 0.922 save-percentage on the year. Just maddening.
• Over the month of November, only four regulars sported CF% below 50% at 5-on-5: Hamonic, Gregor, Ostapchuk, and Kleven. Two of them – Hamonic and Gregor – were above 49%.
• Swap that stat to expected goals at 5-on-5 and there's seven regulars <50%: Batherson, Bernard-Docker, Amadio, Norris, Pinto, Hamonic, and Kleven. The stars are doing what they can, but the team's bottom-three defencemen and trusted top-nine contributors are struggling.
• I really hope someone in the media asks Travis Green directly about Shane Pinto because his on-ice results are vastly different since returning from injury. It puts a lot of pressure on Tim Stützle and Brady Tkachuk to drive the team's offence every night.

It's a 8:00pm ET start tonight. For those watching on TV, you can catch the game on TSN5 and RDS (in Canada) or Victory+ (in the United States).

Stats:

• from NHL.com and NaturalStatTrick.com