Game 53 Hub: Ottawa Senators at Nashville Predators
On the road again...
The Senators are done with home games until after the Four Nations, starting with a quick stop in Nashville.
There are some notable lineup changes to cover. Let's start with the bad:
Per Dean Brown; Norris will be out a few weeks after sustaining a mid-body injury. If he's out until the end of the month, Norris will miss only six games.
— Murray Pam (@pammerhockey.bsky.social) 2025-02-03T17:38:49.233Z
Cole Reinhardt was recalled yesterday morning.
On the good side:
Leevi Merilainen has been loaned to Belleville. All signs point to Linus Ullmark returning this week. He’s back. #Sens
— Alex Adams (@alexadamssn.bsky.social) 2025-02-02T21:01:11.192Z
That said, while we can expect Ullmark to dress it is Forsberg is starting tonight. Here are the Sens projected lines from nhl.com:
David Perron -- Ridly Greig -- Drake Batherson
Cole Reinhardt -- Shane Pinto -- Michael Amadio
Matthew Highmore -- Zack Ostapchuk -- Adam Gaudette
Jake Sanderson -- Artem Zub
Thomas Chabot -- Travis Hamonic
Tyler Kleven -- Nikolas Matinpalo
Anton Forsberg
Linus Ullmark
On the other end of the ice, here are the expected lines for the Preds - though they are expecting to make some game-time decisions:
Luke Evangelista -- Ryan O'Reilly -- Gustav Nyquist
Tommy Novak -- Fedor Svechkov -- Zachary L'Heureux
Cole Smith -- Michael McCarron -- Colton Sissons
Roman Josi -- Justin Barron
Brady Skjei -- Nick Blankenburg
Adam Wilsby -- Luke Schenn
Juuse Saros
Justus Annunen
Game Notes
- Did anybody else forget that Stamkos is a Predator now?
- Part of me would prefer to see Ullmark jump right back in tonight - better to have the goalie who hasn't played in a month and a half play after getting a warmup rather than risk being thrown in cold in relief - but it is a back to back situation, so saving your #1 for the divisional matchup makes sense
- The Predators feel like a team that should probably be doing better than they are, but they are sitting way down in third last. It probably has something to do with their lack of scoring and their lack of goaltending
- Not much happens for the Preds without Filip Forsberg. With 49 points, he's been in on over a third of the Predators 133 goals, and on the ice for another 21
- Note the start time - 7:30pm, on Amazon Prime and TVA Sports
Stats
Players
| Game 53 | Senators | Predators | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Category | Player | # | Player | # |
| Goals | Brady Tkachuk | 20 | Filip Forsberg | 18 |
| Assists | Tim Stützle | 35 | Filip Forsberg | 31 |
| Points | Tim Stützle | 52 | Filip Forsberg | 49 |
| Shots | Brady Tkachuk | 210 | Filip Forsberg | 186 |
| TOI/GP | Jake Sanderson | 24:20 | Roman Josi | 25:12 |
Teams
| Game 51 | Senators | Predators | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Category | # | Rank | # | Rank |
| Goals/GP | 2.83 | 20th | 2.61 | 30th |
| Goals against/GP | 2.67 | 6th | 3.22 | 24th |
| Shots/GP | 29.7 | 8th | 30.2 | 5th |
| Shots against/GP | 27.3 | 10th | 29.2 | 22nd |
| Powerplay % | 23.4 | 9th | 21.1 | 19th |
| Penalty Kill % | 78.8 | 17th | 82.2 | 7th |
| Corsi % (5v5 SVA) | 51.53 | 9th | 51.14 | 11th |
| xGF% (5v5 SVA) | 50.67 | 15th | 51.63 | 12th |
