After an improbable run that saw Ottawa digging up from the depths of despair of November, and defeating four of the top teams in the league in early December, the Sens suffered a hard-luck loss against Tampa Bay this past Thursday. Tonight we’ll see if Ottawa has actually turned over a new leaf in this calendar month or if they revert to their November ways of getting mired in the quicksand against lesser opponents.

The still-hot Anton “Horny Dog” Forsberg will get the start again and Jacob Bernard-Docker will draw into an otherwise unchanged lineup from Thursday:

Wednesday practice lines from Tampa.
(No changes)

Tkachuk Norris Batherson
Formenton Stützle CBrown
Sanford Tierney Ennis
Paul Gambrell Watson
Xxxx Gaudette xxxx

Chabot Zaitsev
Holden Zub
Heatherington Mete
Xxxxx JBD

— TSN 1200 (@TSN1200) December 15, 2021

The Flyers ran these lines this morning:

Lines at Flyers practice (Max Willman, Morgan Frost in COVID protocol)
Farabee-Couturier-Konecny
Lindblom-Giroux-Atkinson
Laughton-Hayes-van Riemsdyk
Cates-Brown-MacEwen

Provorov-Braun
Sanheim-Ristolainen
Yandle-Connauton

— Olivia Reiner (@ReinerOlivia) December 18, 2021

Game Notes:

• Of note for Ottawa, the Senators have placed Nikita Zaitsev on injured reserve, hence JBD drawing in tonight.
• The Senators will not get to face off against former teammates Derick Brassard (scratch) and Nate Thompson (IR).
• After getting stonewalled by the Lightning’s top netminder on Thursday, the Sens will face the Flyers backup, Martin Jones, as Carter Hart (who has enjoyed a resurgent season to date) will miss tonight’s game due to illness. To my knowledge, tonight the Flyers will dress a backup goalie other than Jones or Hart for the first time this season.
• Philadelphia has gone 3-2-1 since Mike Yeo replaced Alain Vigneault on December 6th.
• Also of note since these two teams last played, the Flyers’ front office has overhauled the roster substantially with Jakub Voracek, Shayne Gostisbehere, Nolan Patrick, and Robert Hagg leaving town; and Cam Atkinson, Rasmus Ristolainen, Keith Yandle, and Ryan Ellis (IR) coming in.
• It bears mentioning that for all their struggles this season, and even without Hart in the net tonight, the Flyers still have decent top-six (including pending UFA Claude Giroux).
• In terms of the actual match-up, Ottawa’s good powerplay and bad penalty kill will lock horns with Philadelphia’s bad powerplay and good penalty kill. Neither of these teams thrives at five-on-five and Ottawa has a bit of an edge in terms of penalty differential./

Where to watch: SN1, SN360, TSN1200 @ 7PM EST

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