Game 58 Hub: Arizona Coyotes @ Ottawa Senators

One of the signs of an anxious fanbase is when a piece of information that could easily be presented as an opportunity is seen as a challenge.

That's how I feel about Arizona's 14-game winless streak, which continued last night against Toronto. A back-to-back against a team that didn't win a single game for an entire month could be looked at as an opportunity to feast on a vulnerable group that lacks confidence like a pack of, well, coyotes. Instead, I bet I'm not alone with the refrain: "welcome to Ottawa, where streaks come to die." The only thing that could be worse is if Arizona's starting goaltender was a former Senator or playing in their first NHL game. Alas.

Here's how the Senators lined up in practice this morning, with Artem Zub returning, Tim Stützle and Thomas Chabot ready-to-go after having a maintenance day yesterday, Zack MacEwen in the lineup after being recalled from Belleville, and Josh Norris and Travis Hamonic out (long-term):

Meanwhile, here's how the Coyotes lined up last night against Toronto, with the only expected change being Karel Vejmelka in goal over Connor Ingram:

Kerfoot - Hayton - Schmaltz
Maccelli - Bjugstad - Crouse
Zucker - Cooley - Guenther
Carcone - McBain - O'Brien

Moser - Dumba
Durzi - Kesselring
Valimaki - Stecher

Game Notes:

• Joonas Korpisalo will tend the pipes for Ottawa, with Anton Forsberg expected to start tomorrow night against the Philadelphia Flyers. He was in net the last time these two teams met, which was Jacques Martin's first game back in charge on December 19th. The Coyotes rallied from 3-0 down to win 4-3 in regulation.
• Unlike that December meeting, the Coyotes will be playing without star forward Clayton Keller. He left Arizona's Sunday night tilt with Winnipeg after suffering an upper-body injury, and is expected to be back next week. Travis Boyd is also out injured.
• Arizona's last win came on January 22nd against the Penguins, which is... yikes. Don't expect them to look awful, though. As Jacques Martin noted at practice, Andre Tourigny's group still plays hard, and they probably deserved at least 3-4 wins over the losing streak. Their best games have come in the last week, where they generated over 60% of the expected goals against Toronto, Winnipeg, and Montréal.
• Expect Arizona at their best when either Barrett Hayton's or Logan Cooley's line is on the ice with the puck-moving Juuso Valimaki and Troy Stecher pair. Hayton is the likely matchup for the reformed Sanderson - Zub pair, and I expect either Stützle or Greig to get solid matchups otherwise.

Stats: