Game Hub #30: Penguins @ Senators

It's amazing what a nice stretch of games can do for the confidence of a team and the psyche of a fanbase. The Ottawa Senators' 3-0 win in Carolina last night was one of their more impressive wins of the season considering how difficult it is to win there, and they're now up to 6-2-1 over their last nine games and have finally gotten over .500 at 14-13-2. They still sit two points out of a playoff spot (with a game in hand), but they have corrected course and are at least in the thick of things.

Something they're looking to do tonight that they haven't done all season long is win a third straight game. It's well overdue, and they need to prove to everyone that they can go on a run. Standing in their way are Erik Karlsson and the Pittsburgh Penguins, who have also been playing well of late and are tied with Ottawa but with two more games played. This is Ottawa's last home game before their gruelling nine-game road trip, so heading into that trip with a win would be excellent.

Ottawa's lines might change before the game, but this is what they went with last night and I wouldn't be surprised if they kept it the same after a great win. However, it's unclear if Linus Ullmark will get starts on back-to-back nights as he has yet to do that this season:

For the Penguins, these were their lines during their Friday practice, while we have confirmation that Tristan Jarry will be their starting goalie:

Game Notes:

• As of publishing, we don't know if Ullmark or Forsberg will be starting but I hope Ullmark gets the chance to keep his flow going. He's up to a .909 SV% on the season and has a .954 SV% over his last six games as he has been lights out. If it's Forsberg in net, he desperately needs a good game to keep the momentum going.
• The Penguins still have some firepower with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Erik Karlsson, and Kris Letang, but they're a very mediocre team overall. They just beat the Montreal Canadiens 9-2 on Thursday so they're capable of doing damage here and there, but they're also dead last in goals against per game and 30th in shots against. This isn't the Penguins of years past, and Ottawa should be the better team.
• Tristan Jarry is starting tonight, and he has an .884 SV% in 12 games this season and a -5.56 GSAx. There's no reason they shouldn't be scoring a good amount tonight.
• Shane Pinto finally scored twice last night after scoring zero times after opening night, so let's see if the floodgates open for him moving forward.
• Pittsburgh has been woefully inept at keeping leads this season, as they have squandered nine two-goal leads so far. So if the Senators are down by a few, don't count them out just yet.
• The Penguins' overall record was 8-12-4 at one point but they've gone 6-2-0 since then, similar to what the Senators have done (6-2-1 over their last nine).

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