The Senators are set to look a little different Thursday night when they host the Colorado Avalanche at Canadian Tire Centre, and the biggest change is in goal. Linus Ullmark is back and will start for Ottawa after missing time with a lower-body injury suffered on Oct. 21 in a 5-1 win over Florida.
Ottawa enters the night at 11-6-2 with 24 points, sitting in the first wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. Colorado comes in with the exact same record and point total, which has the Avalanche third in the Central Division and tied with the Senators for tenth overall.
The Senators are coming off a 3-2 overtime loss to the Washington Capitals on Tuesday, which snapped a two-game winning streak. Before that, Ottawa beat the Buffalo Sabres 2-1 and the Utah Mammoth 4-2, picking up five of a possible six points over its last three games.
Tim Stützle continues to drive the offense with 23 points in 19 games, including nine goals and 14 assists. Drake Batherson also has nine goals, while Dylan Cozens has seven goals and 13 points.
Michael Amadio has chipped in with five goals and 11 points, and several of those have come at key moments. The one area that still hasn’t found its rhythm is the power play, which sits at 12.7 per cent.
Ottawa also gets a chance to settle things a bit with Colorado after the teams split their recent meetings. The Senators beat the Avalanche 5-2 in January, answering for an 8-2 loss in Denver the week before. In that game, Mads Sogaard and Leevi Merilainen combined to allow eight goals on 34 shots.
Colorado arrives on a roll after back-to-back wins, a 4-0 shutout of the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday and a 6-3 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday. Nathan MacKinnon is once again powering the Avalanche attack with 30 points in 19 games, including 10 goals and 20 assists. Artturi Lehkonen leads the team with 13 goals, Martin Necas has six goals and 18 points, and Cale Makar has added 14 points from the blue line.
The Avalanche’s power play is clicking at 22.6 per cent, and Mackenzie Blackwood has handled most of the crease work, going 10-3-1.
Ottawa’s injury list is still a problem, and it got longer after Tuesday’s game against Washington. Nick Cousins left with an upper-body injury after taking a violent but clean hit from former Senator Jakob Chychrun.
Travis Green said Wednesday that Cousins is expected to miss at least seven to 10 days. Sammy Blais will step in for him Thursday, while William Eklund, Warren Foegele, and Andre Burakovsky remain out as well.
Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. at Canadian Tire Centre.
In Other News...
Senators Keep Losing Useful Depth For Nothing And Fans Feel It
The Senators waiver losses keep turning into someone elses depth chart, and the latest example came with the Canucks scooping up defenseman Cameron Crotty from Minnesota. Crotty had already been in Ottawas organization earlier this season before getting caught in the waiver shuffle, a familiar kind of transaction for a team trying to manage roster spots while still hoping to keep useful depth close at hand.
He now joins goaltender Leevi Merilinen as another player Ottawa has watched disappear through waivers after spending time on the Senators side of the ledger. Merilinen had served as a backup in Ottawa before being sent to the minors, and for the Senators the frustration is less about one individual move than the pattern itself, with depth pieces they once controlled ending up on other teams for nothing in return. [Read more 🡒]
Senators Have A Power Play Problem They Cant Ignore
Six weeks into the NHL regular season, Ottawa is still hanging around the playoff cutline, but the power play has become a problem the Senators cannot afford to keep brushing aside. The drop-off from last season has been hard to miss, especially with league-wide scoring on the man advantage trending upward, and it has left Ottawa trying to keep pace while one of its biggest weapons has gone quiet.
Injuries have been part of the story, and the personnel changes have forced the Senators to adjust on the fly without the same stability they had a year ago. Montreal is dealing with a similar issue, which only sharpens the contrast around Ottawas own struggles, because the margin in the standings is thin and a functioning power play can make the difference between surviving the early season grind and slipping behind it. [Read more 🡒]
Senators Need Linus Ullmark Now More Than Ever
The Senators have spent much of this season managing one injury after another, and the latest setback only adds to the strain on a roster trying to stay afloat in a crowded Eastern Conference race. Nick Cousins is the newest name on the list, joining a group that has already included William Eklund, Andre Burakovsky and Warren Foegele, even as Ottawa has kept itself in the mix with an 11-6-2 record.
For a team leaning on depth and resilience, the timing could hardly be more important with Linus Ullmark returning to the crease. Ottawa has needed steady goaltending to survive the attrition, and now it gets a chance to see whether its No. 1 can help stabilize things as the injuries continue to pile up around him. [Read more 🡒]