Game 67 Open Thread: Ottawa Senators @ Montreal Canadiens

Which each passing game becoming more crucial leading up to the playoffs, the Ottawa Senators have rose to the occasion and have been rocketing up the standings faster than every other team in the NHL.

Well, almost every team. There's just one club that has a better record since the Four Nations and annoyingly enough, it's the Montreal Canadiens. They've been playing some really good hockey, and I'll give credit where it's due. If I were a Rangers fan, I'd be terrified of them.

While it feels amazing to pull off a sweep of the Battle of Ontario, the Habs are now looking to do the same to the Sens. They've already been cooked twice, by superior goaltending, by Lane Hutson, and by their own mental mistakes. They can't assume that the strong effort on Saturday will guarantee a victory tonight because recently, the Habs have a better record than the Leafs.

Ottawa, of course, has been playing their best hockey since, to be frank, the Hamburglar run. They're 7-0-1 in the last 8, so in a vacuum, a loss tonight wouldn't do much damage to their playoff hopes, but I'd love to go through the rest of the season without being reminded by their obnoxious fans that we couldn't beat them once—though there is still one more Sens/Habs game on April 11.

Linus Ullmark will face Sam Montembeault in goal, with Ottawa's lineup unchanged from Saturday with Nick Jensen missing a second game with a lower-body injury:

Game Notes

• When you're talking about an improved Sens team, you're talking about one thing – finishing. With 4.25 goals per game in March, they're only behind the Colorado Avalanche in that metric. Brady Tkachuk leads the way with 6 goals, with Shane Pinto at 5, followed by David Perron and Mike Amadio with 4 each.
• In particular, Perron has followed up on scoring just one goal on 38 shots, by scoring 4 on 10. It averages out to 10.4%, still below his 12.8% career average, so don't be surprised to see him pot a few more, especially with Dylan Cozens driving that second line with Drake Batherson.
• Travis Hamonic has been a disaster next to Jake Sanderson, but the 34-year-old has shown to be competent when partnered with Thomas Chabot, who notably has plenty of experience playing with worse defensemen. In 150 minutes at 5-on-5 this season, the two have a 50.77% Corsi share, a 52.07% expected goals share, and a 3-3 goal differential with horrible shooting and fantastic goaltending. Whether it's Jensen or Artem Zub, if Hamonic enters the lineup for an injured RHD, play him with Chabot, not Sanderson.
• The Habs are a poor defensive team, but they tend to outscore those problems with a Bruins-esque one-line attack from Nick Suzuki (69 points in 66 games) and Cole Caufield (33 goals in 66 games). Ideally you want Greig - Pinto - Amadio out there to hold them off, but that's out of the Sens' control on the road tonight.
• A brief look at the out-of-town scoreboard shows Detroit (7 points back) visiting the Capitals, and the Rangers (5 points back) hosting Calgary. Aside from Ottawa having at least a game in hand on them, both rivals will be in tough, as the Caps are the East's best team while the Flames are in a furious playoff race of their own.
• It's a 7:00 pm EST start tonight, with the game available on TSN5, TSN2, RDS, and TSN 1200.

Stats:

• from NHL.com and NaturalStatTrick.com