Game 3 Preview & Open Thread: St Louis Blues at Ottawa Senators
The defending champs come to town
The Ottawa Senators are back on the ice tonight after a four day break, easing back into things against... Oh, the defending cup champion St. Louis Blues.
No morning skate today, but based on yesterday here are the expected lines courtesy TSN1200.
Duclair-Tierney-Ryan
Namestnikov-Anisimov-Brown
Abramov-Pageau-Sabourin
Chabot-Zaitsev
Brannstrom-Hainsey
Borowiecki-DeMelo
Nilsson (starter)
Anderson
Game Notes
- Russian the rebuild: the Senators are dressing four Russian players tonight, the highest in the league right now, after seemingly avoiding them for 6 1⁄2 seasons.
- The kids are AHL-right: After Drake Batherson and Filip Chlapik were sent down, it looks like the team’s youth movement will be mostly in the AHL for now. Tonight’s roster is older on average than last year’s Senators roster - and not just because the players are all a year older.
- Special Team Blues: The Senators aren’t the only team to allow more goals while on the power play than they’ve scored, or the only team to not score a power play goal... but they are the only team to do both. Also tied up for the league’s 3rd worst penalty kill./
Stats
All stats from NHL.com, except Corsi/Fenwick from NaturalStatTrick.com
Player Stats
| Ottawa | Senators | Vegas | Golden Knights | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Category | Player | # | Player | # |
| Goals | Brady Tkachuk/Vladislav Namestnikov | 2 | Mark Stone/Reilly Smith | 5 |
| Assists | Jean-Gabriel Pageau/Connor Brown | 3 | William Karlsson | 7 |
| Points | Jean-Gabriel Pageau/Vladislav Namestnikov | 4 | Mark Stone | 10 |
| Shots | Brady Tkachuk/Anthony Duclair | 17 | Max Pacioretty | 28 |
| Time On Ice | Thomas Chabot | 26:00 | Shea Theodore | 21:44 |
Team Stats
| Ottawa | Senators | Vegas | Golden Knights | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | Rank | # | Rank | |
| Goals/GP | 2.40 | 25th | 3.71 | 7th |
| Goals against/GP | 3.80 | 26th | 2.71 | 10th |
| Shots/GP | 29.4 | 23rd | 33.9 | 8th |
| Shots against/GP | 33.0 | 23rd | 33.3 | 25th |
| Powerplay % | 0.0 | 31st | 29.2 | 7th |
| Penalty Kill % | 81.8 | 15th | 92.6 | 2nd |
| Corsi % (5v5, Score and Venue Adjusted) | 47.16 | 22nd | 51.35 | 10th |
| Fenwick % (5v5, SVA) | 47.95 | 22nd | 50.98 | 14th |
Puck drop is shortly after 7:30. You can watch on TSN5 and RDS Info, or listen on TSN1200.