Game 80 preview: Pittsburgh Penguins @ Ottawa Senators

The surging Pittsburgh Penguins cruise into town to play a mehing Ottawa Senators side. The Penguins have won six in a row following a loss which followed another six game winning streak. Meanwhile the Senators are just playing out the string with nothing but milestones for Erik Karlsson, Mike Hoffman and Mika Zibanejad left to play for.

With all the injuries, the Senators will ice a lineup with a very strong AHL flavour. Here are the lines expected for tonight:

Smith - Pageau - Ryan
Hoffman - ZIbanejad - Dzingel
Puempel - Lazar - Chiasson
Robinson - Paul - Neil

Claesson - Karlsson
Kostka - Ceci
Harpur - Wideman

Hammond (starter)
Anderson

Some notes for tonight:

• Erik Karlsson broke his own club record for points by a defenceman with his 79th point on Saturday.
• Karlsson has tied the highest number of assists by a defenceman in the last 20 years and is one point shy of the most points by a defenceman in the last 20 years.
• Mike Hoffman needs two goals and two assists to get 30 goals and 30 assists for the season.
• Mika Zibanejad needs one more goal to get to 20 goals and two more points to get to 50.
• Karlsson leads Joe Thornton by four for the most assists in the league. He also leads Thornton by one point for fourth place in the NHL scoring race.
• Sidney Crosby has a point in six straight games and in 18 of the last 19 games.
• Kris Letang is also on a six game points streak.
• The Penguins have won by scores of 7-2, 3-2, 5-4, 5-2, 5-0 and 6-2 on this winning streak.
• Cody Ceci can reach 10 goals if he manages to score one more goal in the next three games.
• Buddy Robinson will make his NHL debut tonight. Robinson has 22 points in 58 AHL games this year.
• It sure was a different atmosphere last year when the Senators played the Penguins at home during the last week of the season eh?
• Thursday's game will be Karlsson's 250th consecutive regular season game.
• Matt Puempel has just 23 shots in 23 NHL games this season./