Game 5 Preview & Open Thread: Minnesota Wild at Ottawa Senators

Fresh off their Saturday night victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Ottawa Senators finally have two points to their name. There is, however, one team that has still gone pointless through four regular season games, and that team is the Minnesota Wild.

Here are your expected lines, with Boedker in and Anisimov scheduled, but a game-time decision:

Here’s how we expect the Wild to lineup, with no confirmation yet on their starting goaltender or their fourth line, with Ryan Donato and Gerald Mayhew in the mix:

Game Notes

• Minnesota has given up 21 goals in four games, including seven against an injured Penguins squad their last time out. Devan Dubnyk let in six of those goals before being pulled in relief of Alex Stalock, and it remains to be seen who the Sens will face in net this afternoon.
• Despite the poor start, the Wild are still >50% on shot attempts, shots, and expected goals on average. They really deserved better against the Jets, but have been let down by extremely poor goaltending. As you can see with their lines — there’s danger throughout their lineup. The Sens will have to be ready to play up to any opponent this season.
• In particular, the Zucker-Koivu line matched with any of the Wild’s top-two pairs have been rock solid this season. It’s likely their most dangerous despite the firepower on Staal’s line.
• The Sens sent down Vitaly Abramov yesterday after D.J. Smith only played him for 3:17 against Tampa Bay. If this was Guy Boucher, we’d be rioting. If you missed it, Troy Mann was on TSN1200 on October 8th talking about how he’s trying to spread ice-time among the skilled forwards he has available.
• Next up on the list? Nick Paul and Jordan Szwarz. The Sens head on a three-game road trip in the desert after today, so it remains to be seen if Paul and Szwarz are here for that, or will be exchanged after tonight. If the former, the extra call-up of Szwarz — a centre — makes sense, especially with Artem Anisimov likely not at 100% after suffering a lower-body injury in the third period on Saturday.
• Puck drops at 1:00pm EST, and you can catch the game on TSN5, RDS, FS-N, FS-WI, NHL.TV./

Stats

All stats from NHL.com, except Corsi/Fenwick from NaturalStatTrick.com

Player Stats

Team Stats

It’s a 10pm Eastern start time, and the game can be found on RDS and TSN5.