The Ottawa Senators almost completed an incredible comeback on Thursday against the Pittsburgh Penguins, which would’ve been their second great comeback in less than a week. However, after the 6-4 loss, they have now lost back-to-back games and are looking to stop the skid while they visit the Washington Capitals.

The last time the Senators played the Capitals, Drake Batherson got his first career hat-trick, yet they still lost a wild 7-5 game in October. Since then, the Capitals have been in a playoff spot with 53 points in 41 games, although they are 4th in the Metropolitan (and therefore a wildcard position). They aren’t the same team from years past, but Alex Ovechkin is somehow just as good as ever (and maybe even better??), so they’re not a team to take lightly.

Here are the lines for tonight (same as on Thursday, the only difference is Matt Murray will start and Anton Forsberg will back him up):

Lines at #Sens practice:

Tkachuk-Norris-Batherson
Formenton-Stützle-Sanford
Paul-Gambrell-Watson
Shaw-Tierney-Gaudette

Chabot-JBD
Holden-Zub
Brannstrom- J.Brown
Heatherington-Mete

Forsberg
Gustavsson

— Claire Hanna (@clahanna) January 19, 2022

Caps lines at morning skate:

Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Hathaway
Protas-Backstrom-Wilson
McMichael-Eller-Sheary
Leason-Dowd-Hagelin

Fehervary-Schultz
Kempny-TVR
Cholowski-Irwin

— Andrew Gillis (@Andrew_Gillis70) January 22, 2022

Vitek Vanecek gets the start for Washington.

Game Notes:

• It appears that Erik Brännström has finally earned the trust of DJ Smith:/

DJ Smith on Erik Brannstrom:

"It looks like he's arrived." #Sens

— Kyle Bukauskas (@SNkylebukauskas) January 21, 2022

He played 23:28 on Thursday, the second-most of his career, and it’ll be interesting to see if that trend continues.

• I wonder if Brännström will ever get moved to the right side again briefly in the game, as he did play with Thomas Chabot at points on Thursday. It’s something to monitor.
• Ovechkin leads the league with 56 points in 41 games. He’s on pace for a whopping 112 points as a 36-year-old.
• Can Alex Formenton continue his hot streak? He has 11 points in his last 12 games.
• Ottawa is 41-48-5-5 all-time against the Capitals and only 13-20-3-3 in Washington.
• Vitek Vanecek has never faced the Senators and has a .909 SV% on the season (.908% career).
• The Tkachuk/Norris/Batherson line continues to be incredibly productive, and don’t look for them to slow down anytime soon./

Team Stats:

Team Stats

Player Stats:

Player Stats