Game 57 Preview and Open Thread: Seattle Kraken @ Ottawa Senators

Following one of their best defensive efforts of the season against the St. Louis Blues, the Ottawa Senators return home looking for more of the same. Tonight’s opponent is a rare one — a team who the Senators are actually favoured to win against, the Seattle Kraken.

Seattle’s first season has been that of a typical expansion team, in other words, really bad. Despite being the second-best team in the league at suppressing shots, they’ve largely struggled in every other area. In particular, Philipp Grubauer, a Vezina nominee last season, has an abysmal .887 save percentage through 43 games. It’s definitely an unexpected result for the Kraken, who signed Grubauer in the offseason to a six-year deal worth $5.9M annually.

Meanwhile, Ottawa is still feeling the effects of Drake Batherson’s high-ankle sprain, though a few players have recently picked up the slack in his absence. 2020 3rd overall pick Tim Stutzle has 6 points in his last 3 games, and their leading goal-scorer, Josh Norris, had his best game in a while against the Blues with his 20th goal in 40 games, along with 2 assists.

Anton Forsberg is expected to start in goal tonight, and the Sens will go with a similar* lineup to their morning skate.

Morning Sens lines.
(No Connor Brown)

Tkachuk Norris Batherson
Formenton Stützle Gaudette
Paul White Sanford
Kelly Gambrell Watson
Ennis

Chabot Zub
Holden Zaitsev
Brannstrom JBrown
Mete.

Forsberg-starters end.
Gustavsson

— TSN 1200 (@TSN1200) March 10, 2022

*Batherson won’t play, and Connor Brown is a game-time decision. It’ll be Brown or Tyler Ennis skating alongside Brady Tkachuk and Josh Norris tonight.

Game Notes:

• The identity of Ottawa’s starting goalie has been constantly changing throughout the season, but for now, it’s Anton Forsberg, who has posted a save percentage of at least .930 in 8 of his last 9 games.
• Despite being on pace for a 20-goal season, Alex Formenton has really cooled down as of late, with 4 goals and 1 assist in his last 19 games. Unless the team can get more out of him, it’s going to be difficult to consistently generate the offense necessary to win games, given the already-existent hole in their top-six from Batherson’s injury.
• Seattle has not relied on any one of their defencemen too much this year, given the lack of star power. Adam Larsson is their leader in time on ice per game, at 21:55. That’s a stark contrast to the Senators, who rely on Thomas Chabot for over 26 minutes a night.
• Tonight’s game will start at 7:00 pm EST, and you can catch the action on TSN5, RDS, and TSN 1200./

Stats:

• All from NHL.com, except for Corsi/xGF from NaturalStatTrick.com/

Team Stats

Player Stats