Game 47 Hub: Ottawa Senators @ New York Rangers

Sitting 6 games above .500, the Ottawa Senators are beginning to separate themselves from the big mess of teams in the Eastern Conference playoff race. Columbus, Boston, and Montreal are close behind, however, and with tonight's opponents, the New York Rangers, having collected points in 9 of their last 10 games, they are clawing their way back as well. Separation is the name of the game.

With Igor Shesterkin in goal, an otherwise playoff-caliber Senators team that struggles to score, will have the tough task of finishing on their chances. The good news is that since that 40-save performance back in November, Igor got his massive paycheck, and now has significantly less incentive to risk his long-term health in what will be a fruitless effort to maintain that franchise's relevance.

Here are the projected lines for the Sens, with Leevi Merilainen starting in goal:

And here's the Rangers' lineup from a recent victory over Columbus.

Game Notes:

• I don't know what's crazier, the fact that the Sens are 11-5-2 in their last 18 games, or that Brady Tkachuk has just 7 points in that stretch. We've been talking for years about how the core has needed a strong cast of depth players, along with better defense and goaltending, to support them. It's encouraging to see the team can win games now without relying on their top players taking over the game. Eventually, they'll need to get going again, as goaltending is unpredictable and won't be this good all year.
• After years of Mika Zibanejad making Pierre Dorion look silly, the former 6th-overall selection is beginning to enter his Kyle Turris Nashville era. He's got just 28 points in 46 games, which is a far cry from what we're used to seeing from him. In fact, the Rangers have had scoring problems from most of their top forwards outside of Artemi Panarin. They're like the Senators, but much worse at playing defense.
• I'm not saying I feel bad for Alexis Lafreniere, since he makes $7M a year, but I definitely think his career trajectory was screwed up by the Rangers being spoon-fed a first-overall pick as one of the league's better teams at the time. You can't hamper Panarin and Chris Kreider by putting them on the off-wing, so Lafreniere was stuck on the third line for years and wasn’t able to properly develop. As a result he's got 28 points in 46 games as a middling second-liner. That said, I'm not complaining about the Sens getting the 3rd pick.
• It wouldn't be a stretch to say Jake Sanderson and Artem Zub have been one of the unluckiest defensive pairings of all time. Dead-last in shooting percentage (not just their own individual numbers, but the forwards on the ice with them), and sixth-last in save percentage, despite ranking 7th-best in expected goals share at 5-on-5 out of 109 pairings with 200 or more minutes played. The bounces will come ….eventually.
• It's a 7:00 pm EST start and the game is available on RDS2, TSN5, and TSN 1200.

Stats:

• from NHL.com and NaturalStatTrick.com