Game 62 Hub: Ottawa Senators @ San Jose Sharks

Back in the day, I used to think about the Sharks as "Sens West". A perennial Stanley Cup contender for a decade and as recently as 2018-19, San Jose played entertaining hockey, featured marquee players, and got so close without putting the puck over the goal line.

Unfortunately, the Sharks might as well be "Sens West" for the opposite reason, now. They enter tonight's contest having traded away franchise favourite Tomas Hertl to a hated rival, the Vegas Golden Knights, and now, only Logan Couture and Marc-Edouard Vlasic remain from a Sharks core that once included Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau, Joe Pavelski, Brent Burns, Timo Meier, and Erik Karlsson.

Since an emotional shootout win against those same Golden Knights on February 24th, the Senators have lost six straight and almost as many players to injury or suspension, with Parker Kelly the latest absentee from the lineup after being axed for two games by the NHL. While the Senators managed to secure their first point away from home against the Western Conference in Thursday's overtime loss to the Kings, they are running out of games to get a victory. After today, they face Winnipeg on March 30th and Minnesota on April 2nd.

We expect the Sens to lineup in a similar manner as they did against the Kings, with the newly-claimed Boris Katchouk in the lineup over Kelly. As of right now, the team's starting goalie has not been announced:

Meanwhile, here's how the Sharks lined up in their Thursday night defeat to the Islanders:

Puck drop is blessedly at 7EST. You can watch on Sportsnet One, or listen on TSN1200

Game notes:

• Sheng Peng has a full rundown of San Jose's extensive trade deadline. Their best trade of the day featured former Sens winger Anthony Duclair, who went to Tampa Bay for 21-year-old right-shot defender Jack Thompson and a third-round pick. A great return for the pending UFA.
• Two other players, Klim Kostin, acquired from Detroit, and Devin Cooley, acquired from Buffalo, should be dressed tonight. Cooley, a 26-year-old netminder from local Los Gatos, has not started an NHL game and sports a 0.891 save-percentage in 14 games with Rochester. It's unsure whether he'll start over 23-year-old and four-game NHL veteran Magnus Chrona, who was in net for all seven against the Islanders and is still looking for his first NHL win.
• If Chrona and Søgaard both start, it could be a record for the tallest combined height between starting goaltenders in an NHL game. Chrona is 6-foot-6 and Søgaard is 6-foot-7.
• Steve Staios talked about cap flexibility with Ottawa's retained salary spots heading into the deadline. San Jose has now used all three of their spots until the 2025-26 season, and two (Hertl, Burns) until 2027-28.
• Ottawa's only action yesterday involved bringing in Boris Katchouk. While I don't think he's anyone to write home about, I will be interested to see the type of opportunity he gets. The fact that the left-shot winger is getting a look probably means Staios is trying to keep Belleville relatively stocked for a playoff run. I also wonder if Katchouk will take minutes from Dominik Kubalik on PP2.

Stats: