Game 42 Preview and Open Thread: Dallas Stars @ Ottawa Senators

The Senators ended a four-game losing streak yesterday against the Pittsburgh Penguins. If they'd like to continue their winning ways, they'll have to end the longest winning streak in the league – currently at seven games – after the Dallas Stars defeated the Montréal Canadiens last night in a shootout.

The positives? The Senators were engaged physically all game against the Penguins, but shouldn't have felt the same exertion as the Stars – who were pushed to the brink against the Habs and played a tight-checking, tied hockey game for most of the evening.

The negatives? It's hard to imagine a top-five offence like the Stars scoring <2 goals for two games in a row, so the Sens will have to practice what Travis Green preaches – details, consistency, and ongoing communication.

Game lineups

If you didn't catch yesterday's matinee against the Penguins, here's how the Sens lined up. We don't have word yet from Travis Green about the starting goaltender or the status of Cole Reinhardt, but I'd expect Anton Forsberg in net:

Meanwhile, here's how the Stars lined up in their shootout win over Montréal. Again, no official word about the starting netminder but I imagine Casey DeSmith will get the nod:

Game notes

• As expected for a team on a seven-game winning streak, the Stars' big boys are playing extremely well. Coming into yesterday's game against the Canadiens:

• The Stars are without two top-nine forwards in Tyler Seguin and Mason Marchment. 2020 first-round pick Mavrik Bourque has stepped up in their absence, with a three-game point streak giving him 10 points in 36 games. Bourque was one of the American Hockey League's best players last season with 77 points (51 assists) in 71 games.
• Sam Steel – re-signed to a one-year, $1.2M deal after not receiving a qualifying offer – and Oskar Bäck have also emerged as regular players this season to help shore up the Stars' depth.
• Yesterday afternoon's contest was quickly out of reach for the Penguins, so I'm trying not to read too much into the game numbers – wherein the Sens only generated ~33% of the shot attempts and ~29% of the expected goals at 5-on-5. The Sens didn't generate much of anything against the Stars 10 days ago (43% of CF% and xGF% at 5-on-5) so they'll be hoping for better tonight.

Catch tonight's game at 5:00pm ET in Ottawa or on TV on TSN5, RDS2, or Victory+. This thread might become active from 3:30pm when Steve Staios holds a mid-season media availability which will be streamed on the Senators website.

Statistics

Via NHL.com and NaturalStatTrick.com

Stats