Game 56 preview: Ottawa Senators @ Pittsburgh Penguins

The Ottawa Senators start a tough week with a game against Captain Douchebag and the Penguins in Pittsburgh tonight. The Penguins are a very impressive 22-4-0 at home and 15-1-0 in the last 16 at home. The Senators did rout them 5-0 in their meeting in Ottawa in December, so there is that at least.

Here are the lines from Sylvain St-Laurent and Craig Anderson will start in net again.

MacArthur - Turris - Ryan
Michalek - Spezza - Zibanejad
Greening - Smith - Neil
Conacher - Da Costa - Condra

Cowen - Karlsson
Methot - Gryba
Wiercioch - Ceci

Anderson (starter)
Lehner

Some notes for tonight:

• Saturday was the fifth time Craig Anderson has allowed five or more goals. He has bounced back with a save percentage of 89.2% in the four previous games following those games. He has been better in the 15 (!!!) previous times that he has allowed four or more goals, posting a save percentage of 91.0%. On the other hand, he did shutout Pittsburgh last time.
• Chris Phillips is out again. He will also not play in St. Louis tomorrow. He has not really been missed.
• Sidney Crosby is "only" a point per game in 25 games against Ottawa, which is a lot lower than he is against other teams. Erik Karlsson has been very good against him recently.
• The Senators are likely going to have to score quite a bit to keep up tonight. The Kyle Turris and Jason Spezza line cannot be shutout again for Ottawa to win.
• The Senators can move into a tie on points for the last playoff spot with a win and either a Columbus or Detroit regulation loss.

Here are some stats leaders for the two teams tonight.