Game 37 Preview and Open Thread: Ottawa Senators @ Buffalo Sabres

Well, well, well. The Sens have lost 4 in a row, and 12 of their last 14. Nobody's talking about games in hand anymore. Nothing's in hand for the Sens anymore. Three times on Tuesday they gave up the lead. Tim Stützle's off the top powerplay. Every combo of D-men seems bad. This team can't kill a penalty. The return of Mathieu Joseph brought a badly needed element to the forward corps, but he's still just one guy, and this team is in free fall.

Tonight, the Sens take on a team almost as disappointing. The Sabres are slightly ahead, but both these teams were predicted to be fighting for playoff spots, and their postseason hopes were basically over a month ago. Let's see if the Sens can right the ship against another group taking on water. Norris is out and Zub is back, so with that here are tonight's expected lines:

Thoughts for tonight:​​

• I'm not sure how Sanderson and Chychrun look so bad together. Both look good on their own, with Zub, with Chabot. But they just don't seem to communicate well.
• This Sens team looks disengaged. Several times against Calgary a guy just looked like he was coasting. It's hard to blame them. Playoffs aren't possible, there will likely be a sell-off, the current coach isn't a long-term solution. It's just painful to watch.
• Speaking of painful, Tim Stūtzle has one point in his past six games. That's his worst stretch of six games since Nov 4 to 14, 2021.
• On the bright side, at least the B-Sens have won 7 in a row, and Shane Pinto will be back in 10 days.

Stats:

Team Stats

Player Stats