Game 56 Hub: Ottawa Senators @ Florida Panthers

Coming off of back-to-back defeats against their Floridian counterparts, let's hope the Senators can leave it all out on the ice against the Panthers to enter the February break with bright spirits.

They'll be in tough against a Florida team sporting a 7-3-0 record in their last 10 and, by my eye, the clear favourite to win the Atlantic Division. The Panthers (187) have scored 30 more goals than the Senators (157) at this point in the season, and only find themselves behind Winnipeg (202) and Washington (192) league-wide.

Lineups:

Ottawa's number one netminder will be in net tonight, and they'll need a big game from Linus Ullmark if they want to come away victorious. If Shane Pinto can't play, we imagine a similar lineup as Thursday night's loss to Tampa Bay due to cap reasons (below); if Pinto can play, Travis Green will have to make a decision on defence – likely between Travis Hamonic and Nikolas Matinpalo:

Here's how Florida lined up in their Thursday night victory over the St. Louis Blues. Paul Maurice is expected to make two changes: Sergei Bobrovsky in for Spencer Knight, and Jonah Gadjovich in for the injured Mackie Samoskevich:

Game Notes:

• Unlike the Senators, the Panthers are fully healthy outside of Samoskevich. They rank in the top-half of the league in every meaningful metric, and are a top-five offence. They'll be testing the Senators' defensive resolve all night.
• There are nine Panthers forwards with >19 points this season, and only six Senators. One area where Ottawa has them beat is in the one-two punch of Jake Sanderson and Thomas Chabot. Look for big games from them, especially as puck transporters to beat the first wave of Florida's forecheck.
• The Sens also have an advantage in net, with Sergei Bobrovsky sporting a .901 save-percentage – letting in 6.6 more goals than expected given the danger he's faced. He's been especially weak on bad angle shots below the faceoff dots on both sides, so I wonder if that's an area to target for Sens forwards.
• Ottawa's received important contributions from Ridly Greig, Michael Amadio, and David Perron over the last week. Nichols has a piece in The Hockey News on Perron playing to his strengths: board play and edgework.
• If you're watching the out of town scoreboard today, the Sens will know the results of a pair of consequential 1:00pm ET contests between New Jersey – Montréal and Tampa Bay – Detroit and a 3:30pm ET game between Vegas – Boston. In all three matchups, away wins will help Ottawa's playoff chances.

Tonight's game starts at 7:00pm ET and can be found on CITY, Sportsnet One, and TVA Sports in Canada, or SCRIPPS in the United States.

Player Stats:

via NHL.com

Team Stats:

via NHL.com and Natural Stat Trick