Game 55 Preview & Open Thread: Ottawa Senators @ Winnipeg Jets

After a lifeless loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday night, the Sens are on a mini two-game road trip that sees them stop in Winnipeg this afternoon, before facing the Avalanche in Denver on Tuesday.

Here’s what we expect from the Sens, with Vladislav Namestnikov as a potential question mark after taking a puck to the face in practice:

Meanwhile, here’s what we expect from Paul Maurice’s Jets:

Game Notes:

• With Mark Borowiecki absent from the team awaiting the birth of his first child, the Sens recalled Andreas Englund from Belleville. He’s not expected to play tonight.
• Drake Batherson has been the team’s best forward over this recent stretch, and I’ve really enjoyed watching him play with two smart forwards in Tyler Ennis and Colin White. The points haven’t been there for White this year, but his underlying metrics look okay and the team must be hoping that he’ll grow from this in the offseason.
• It’ll be interesting to see Mike Reilly play away from Dylan DeMelo for an extended period so we can get a good sense of his isolated impact under D.J. Smith. DeMelo has been vital to Borowiecki’s career year, and Reilly looked great next to him. Nikita Zaitsev is basically the polar opposite.
• Moving over to the Jets, Winnipeg finds themselves just one point behind Calgary for the second wild-card spot, and two points behind Arizona for the first spot. They’ve gone 3-6-1 over their last 10, which hasn’t helped, so they’re hoping to use a win against Ottawa to propel them back into the mix.
• I’m not sure there’s a bigger drop-off between a team’s top-six and bottom-six in the league. The Winnipeg I remember from recent memory had immense depth at both forward and defence, but they look bare on both fronts.
• Patrik Laine has more assists than goals!  /

Here’s some pre-game stats, courtesy of NHL.com and Natural Stat Trick:

Player Stats

Team Stats