After Thursday’s shutout loss, the Ottawa Senators will again look for a way to manufacture some offence in the abcence of some of their top forwards. The team has played admirably enough despite the injuries but this lineup can only do so much when the opposition successfully shuts down their top line:

Meanwhile, the Boston Bruins rolled out this lineup in their most recent game (a shutout loss of their own on Thursday night):

Game Notes

• Reading the comments section after that 6-0 loss to Carolina, you would have a hard time knowing that the Bruins sit comfortably in the playoff picture, on pace for about 100 points in the standings. The situation seems tense in Boston.
• Of note, Tuukka Rask announced his retirement following a failed comeback attempt, Brad Marchand has gotten himself suspended again (this time for six games), and Patrice Bergeron has sustained an upper body injury.
• With that, both teams currently lack two thirds of their top lines so Ottawa doesn’t necessarily gain any advantage.
• Jeremy Swayman likely gets the start for Boston. While technically their back-up, he has better numbers this season than starter Linus Ullmark. Will DJ Smith continue to ride the hot hand of Matt Murray?
• In terms of old friends coming to town, all of Mike Reilly, Curtis Lazar, and Nick Foligno could dress for the Bruins. Talk about three distinct but also not great mini-eras in Senators history.
• From a numbers standpoint, Boston’s powerplay generates a lot and their penalty kill doesn’t give up much, despite the shooting/save percentage indicators. Luck has undone the Bruins more than actual skill. As always, they have elite five-on-five defensive numbers to match those good special teams rates so odds are Murray needs to stand on his head again to keep this close enough for Ottawa to have a chance with such a thin corps of forwards right now. The opposition still has David Pastrnak and Taylor Hall so proceed with caution and such./

Where to watch/listen: SN, RDS, TSN1200 @ 12:30PM EST

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