The Ottawa Senators walk into Philadelphia with two very different storylines colliding tonight: a 6-2-0 start for Ottawa, and a Flyers team that has dropped nine straight to open the season. That sets the stage at Xfinity Mobile Arena, where a fanbase that lives and breathes this team will show up ready to react - one way or another - when the puck drops at 7:00pm EDT.
Ottawa’s lineup is still in flux, and Jake Sanderson’s status is the biggest wrinkle. Bruce Garrioch noted that this is the first time Sanderson has been with the team, and the alignment posted for the Senators had Halliday-Stutzle-Batherson on the top line, Burakovsky-Cozens-Giroux on the second, Cousins-Pinto-Amadio in the middle, and Foegele-Greig-Zetterlund on the fourth. The defense pairs listed were Chabot-Zub, Sanderson-Spence, and Kleven, with MacDermid-Hodgson also in the mix.
If Sanderson goes tonight, there’s a good chance he starts in a second-pair role with Jordan Spence before Travis Green eventually settles back into the configuration he prefers, with Sanderson alongside Zub and Chabot with Spence. That kind of lineup shuffle has been a theme for Ottawa lately as Green keeps adjusting after the win over the Islanders.
The Flyers, meanwhile, are still waiting on several injured players to come back. Charlie O'Connor noted that Konecny, Grebenkin, Ristolainen, and York remain out, with Ristolainen the closest to returning. If he’s ready, the expectation is that he would come in for Oliver Bonk.
Goaltending has been one of the big talking points around Philadelphia’s rough opening stretch, but the numbers don’t really support the idea that the crease is the main problem. Dan Vladar had a poor game 1, but he’s only given up -2.2 goals more than expected.
Joseph Woll has not been the issue either, ranking as the league’s ninth best goaltender with 4.3 GSAx entering tonight. Ottawa’s Linus Ullmark has been even better, sitting at a league-best 7.7 GSAx.
The Senators have been the team “goalie-ing” opponents so far, not the other way around like last season.
There’s also plenty to watch beyond the netminders. Outside of Philadelphia’s fourth line, the Flyers’ skill is spread fairly evenly across the rest of their group, and even with Konecny and Grebenkin out, Tyson Foerster, Owen Tippett, and Matvei Michkov already showed they can be dangerous in the earlier meeting between these teams this season.
For Ottawa, the lines have kept changing since that win over Philadelphia last week. Stützle and Greig looked strong against the Islanders, while Dylan Cozens is still trying to settle in.
Claude Giroux, as always, looms as a player who tends to show up against his old club, and if he’s with Cozens tonight, that’s a spot where Ottawa would love to see production from No. 24.
Sanderson’s return is the key individual storyline, though, and his skating is the thing to monitor if he’s in the lineup. One of his injuries was lower-body related, and so much of his game rides on that mobility. The question is whether he looks sharp on retrievals and whether he has the confidence to jump into the rush.
Ottawa’s 5-on-5 numbers have been near the bottom of the league to start the year, and the absence of Sanderson and Zub playing their usual heavy minutes was part of that. Now that both are back, the Senators need those shifts to start tilting the ice in their direction again.
The season-long numbers tell the contrast pretty clearly. Ottawa is averaging 2.63 goals per game, while Philadelphia sits at 1.22.
The Senators are allowing 2.5 goals per game, compared with 3.56 for the Flyers. Ottawa has the edge in shots against, and Philadelphia remains near the bottom in several categories, including goals, shots, and power play efficiency.
Individually, Tim Stützle leads the Senators with five goals, six assists, and 11 points, while Thomas Chabot leads the team in shots with 18 and averages 26:59 of ice time per game. For Philadelphia, Matvei Michkov leads the club with three goals, while Travis Konecny leads in assists with three and shares the team lead in points at three. Owen Tippett leads the Flyers in shots with 21, and Travis Sanheim tops their ice-time list at 25:14.
In Other News...
Senators Suddenly Have A Scoring Void A Former Canadien Could Fill
The Senators attack took a hit when William Eklund went in for surgery on a torn tendon, and the timing could hardly be worse for a team looking to keep its offense moving. Eklund is expected to miss 10 to 12 weeks, leaving Ottawa with a noticeable scoring gap at a spot where finishers matter and where the power play can tilt games one way or the other.
That is why Patrik Laine has entered the conversation, with his camp and the Senators having discussed a possible fit. Laine would make sense as a shooter who could plug into the man advantage and give Ottawa another dangerous option, but there is still no agreement in place, and for now the idea remains just that - an idea the Senators may keep weighing as they look for help up front. [Read more 🡒]
Senators May Be Running Out Of Time To Fix Backup Goalie Trouble
The Senators backup goaltending situation has become one of those roster puzzles that can linger quietly until it starts to affect everything around it. Samuel Ersson has struggled in limited work this season, and Ottawa has another option in Jonas Johansson, a goalie with NHL experience behind Andrei Vasilevskiy but a track record that has been more serviceable than standout. With the schedule demanding steady support behind the starter, the question is no longer whether the Senators have options, but which one gives them the safest path forward.
What makes the decision trickier is the roster math attached to it. Ottawa has to weigh whether to bring Johansson up and change the mix in goal, knowing the club would need a plan if it wants to move Ersson to Belleville, where waivers come into play. For a team trying to avoid a crease problem turning into a larger depth issue, the next move could say a lot about how aggressively it wants to solve the backup spot before it becomes harder to ignore. [Read more 🡒]
Senators May Have Found An Answer In This Injury Shuffle
William Eklunds injury left Ottawa with a hole to fill, and Travis Green responded by shuffling the forward groups in a way that gave the Senators a different look against the Islanders. Stephen Halliday was bumped to the left side of the top line, while Ridly Greig slid into the middle on the fourth line, a tweak that helped settle the group in a tight game that the Senators eventually won 2-1 in a shootout.
The changes were more than just temporary patchwork, because Ottawa needed some kind of answer after losing a key winger and Greens lineup choices immediately put familiar names in unfamiliar spots. Hallidays promotion and Greigs move down the lineup gave the Senators a new center of gravity on a night when structure mattered, and it will be worth watching whether this alignment sticks as the team tries to navigate the weeks ahead without Eklund. [Read more 🡒]