Game 5 preview: Tampa Bay Lightning @ Ottawa Senators
A preview of the game between the Ottawa Senators and the Tampa Bay Lightning on October 22, 2016.
After three days off, the Ottawa Senators are back at it hosting the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday night. On Tuesday in front of one of the smallest home crowds in Senators history, the Sens put up a touchdown to beat the Arizona Coyotes 7-4. It's obvious that the offence has been working for them so far this season, but their inability to keep the puck out of their own net still remains the biggest question mark.
Tampa Bay is expected to go with Andrei Vasilevskiy in between the pipes tonight. In his one career start against Ottawa, he gave up four goals as the Sens picked up the 5-1 win.
Craig Anderson will put his perfect 3-0 record on the line with his third start of the season. Matt Puempel and Thomas Chabot will be the healthy scratches again. Here are the expected lines and pairings for tonight's game.
Hoffman - Turris - Stone
Smith - Brassard - Ryan
Pageau - Kelly - Pyatt
Dzingel - Varone - Neil
Methot - Karlsson
Phaneuf - Ceci
Borowiecki - Wideman
Anderson (starter)
Hammond
Some notes for tonight:
- Craig Anderson boasts a career record of 8-3-3 against the Lightning while allowing just 1.73 goals per game, his best GAA against any team.
- Erik Karlsson continues to tear up the league in the early season with points in all four games so far this season.
- After four games, Kyle Turris is on pace for 62 goals this year, while Karlsson is on pace for 144 points. It's great to see our best players get off to a great start and anything short of those projections would be seen as a disappointment (haha).
- Last year's Senators goal scoring leader Mike Hoffman has yet to find the back of the net this season despite leading the team with the 20 shots this year (4th-most in the league).
- The Senators are tied for last in the league with only one powerplay goal on the season but lead the league with two shorthanded goals.
- With one of the nicest empty net goals in a while, Karlsson passed Wade Redden for most goals by a defenceman in Senators history with 102 goals.
Here are some stats for the two teams tonight for last season. All stats are from NHL.com except Corsi and Fenwick are from www.puckon.net.
| Category | Ottawa | Tampa Bay | ||
| Player | # | Player | # | |
| Goals | Kyle Turris | 3 | Alex Killorn | 3 |
| Assists | Erik Karlsson | 5 | Jonathan Drouin & Victor Hedman | 3 |
| Points | Erik Karlsson | 7 | Jonathan Drouin, Alex Killorn, Steven Stamkos | 4 |
| Shots | Mike Hoffman | 20 | Steven Stamkos | 16 |
| Average Ice time | Erik Karlsson | 27:07 | Victor Hedman | 24:31 |
| Category | Ottawa | Tampa Bay | ||
| # | Rank | # | Rank | |
| Goals For | 4.00 | 1st | 3.00 | 15th |
| Goals Against | 4.00 | 26th | 3.25 | 18th |
| Event, Score and venue adjusted Corsi % | 48.7% | 21th | 48.1% | 23th |
| Event, Score and venue adjusted Fenwick % | 51.6% | 14th | 45.3% | 25th |
| Shots For | 35.5 | 1st | 31.3 | 9th |
| Shots Against | 30.5 | 19th | 28.3 | 12th |
