Game 47 Preview and Open Thread: New York Islanders @ Ottawa Senators

A lot has happened since the Sens have last played a game. Josh Norris was ruled out for the season and Ridly Greig is finally getting the call that many have been waiting for.

On a more important front, assistant coach Bob Jones has been diagnosed with ALS and has decided to go public with the news in order to raise awareness. This news will absolutely weigh heavily on the team as the game itself takes a bit of a backseat.

The Sens are now 13 points out of a wild card spot and 12 points above the last place Columbus Blue Jackets for the better Connor Bedard odds. It’s safe to say that unless we go through some miracle, it will be very hard for the Sens to make the playoffs this season. While many didn’t expect playoffs, we were all hoping for a better season overall. The game against the Winnipeg Jets may have been the last straw for many as the team underperformed in almost every area. Even our special teams are starting to fail and when the coach comes out and says things such as “skill doesn’t matter” and “I need a hard worker on every team”; this never bodes much confidence in both the coaching staff or the players.

The Norris news was very unfortunate but in a way expected and at least it happened early on to give Norris enough time to recover prior to next season or at least not miss too much time.

Today’s game should be a good one for the Sens to get reorganized and get some confidence back in their game. There will be a lot of pressure on Greig to impress early on but it’s unfair to expect him to make a drastic change to the team before he gets a good number of games under his belt.

Both teams are coming off a 2-game losing streak and will be looking to get back into the win column especially the Islanders who have a 1-6-3 record in their last 10 games.

Kastelic seems to be battling something so Gambrell will take his place tonight. The lineup as per the morning skate:

Sens lines from the morning skate.

Tkachuk Stützle Joseph
DeBrincat Greig Giroux
Brassard Pinto Batherson
Kelly Gambrell Watson
Motte Kastelic XXXX

Chabot Holden
Sanderson Hamonic
Brannstrom Zaitsev

— TSN 1200 (@TSN1200) January 25, 2023

Game Notes

• Drake Batherson hasn’t been great this season, specifically his defensive game. He is a league worst -32 in the (+/-) category. While his contract does remain a bargain with his current 40 points, it is not unreasonable to expect more from him and I am curious to see how he responds on the third line.
• The first line has the potential to be a very fast and fun line but Joseph has to really prove he belongs there and all eyes will be on him to make this experiment work.
• Cam Talbot is expected to start tonight. While I personally think Forsberg is the better goalie, both have been victims from DJ’s yo-yo structure of starts and a complete mess of defensive efforts the past few games. Talbot has shown he can play very good hockey so the team will need him to put on a good performance tonight.
• Special teams need to be better if the Sens are going to win this game. They also need to be disciplined and they cannot allow what happened against the Jets to happen tonight.
• Win it for Bob Jones!
• You can watch the game at 7:00 pm on Sportsnet or Listen Live at Team 1200./

Game Stats

Player Stats

Team Stats