Game 49 preview: Ottawa Senators @ Tampa Bay Lightning

The Ottawa Senators will look to rebound from a disappointing 6-5 loss in Florida on Tuesday with tonight's game against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Ottawa led 4-2 in the second period, but ultimately lost 6-5 in regulation with the winning goal being scored into an empty net. The Lightning lost 4-3 to the Bruins on Tuesday and are six points and six places out of the final spot.

Ottawa will make two changes with Curtis Lazar and Mark Borowiecki returning to the lineup with Chris Neil and Fredrik Claesson being the healthy scratches. As always, Mike Condon will start in net.

Here are the likely lines and pairings:

Smith - Brassard - Stone
Dzingel - Turris - Ryan
Hoffman - Pageau - Pyatt
Kelly - Lazar - Wingels

Methot - Karlsson
Phaneuf - Ceci
Borowiecki - Wideman

Condon (starter)
Hammond

Some notes for tonight:

• The Senators may have lost the game but Erik Karlsson finally scored a goal. So was the game really a loss?
• Mark Stone picked up an assist on Tuesday but has just two points in the last six. The assist was his first since 8 January.
• Fredrik Claesson is on a three game points streak with four points in that span but will be a healthy scratch tonight.
• Curtis Lazar will get his 28th opportunity to score his first goal of the season.
• The Senators early season luck in one-goal games is starting to dry up. After being at or near the top in that statistic, they are now 14th in one-goal game winning percentage, winning 50% of them (12-6-6).
• Since a 5-1 loss to Anaheim on 11 December, the Senators have been winning or tied at some point in the third period for 18 out of 19 games. The only exception was the 1-0 loss to Washington on 7 January.
• Ottawa is 10-11-3 when they outshoot the opposition and 15-5-2 when they get outshot. What do the nerds know, am I right!?
• The Senators are in the middle of the pack with a 9.1 shooting percentage, which is ranked 14th in the league.
• Viktor Hedman is tied with Erik Karlsson for second in defencemen scoring with 41 points. Brent Burns leads with 53.
• Ottawa is tied with Boston on 58 points but with six fewer games played.
• The Senators' defencemen had 19 out of the 41 shots against Florida.
• Ottawa and Tampa Bay will three times between tonight and 14 March./

Here are some stats for the two teams tonight. All stats are from NHL.com except Corsi and Fenwick are from Corsica.