While the Ottawa Senators are happy to finally be back on home ice, the New York Rangers look to continue their road-warrior ways when the two clubs meet on Thursday.
The Senators are set for their first home date since Nov. 15 after the club went 4-3-0 on a season-long seven-game road trip. The final stop on the trip was Tuesday in Montreal, where the Senators earned a 5-2 win over the Canadiens.
“We came in with a mindset that we wanted to get this road trip over on an over-.500 record, and that would be a successful trip,” Ottawa captain Brady Tkachuk said. “So it was a great game by absolutely everybody on the team.”
Tkachuk scored the Senators’ final tally on Tuesday for his first goal of the season. The forward has played in only six games due to thumb surgery.
The Rangers lead the NHL in road wins as they’ve gone 11-4-1 while averaging 3.38 goals per game. Alas, the team’s home results have gone in the other direction, as the Rangers are 3-8-1 with only 1.67 goals per game scored in New York.
Tuesday’s 3-2 overtime home win over the Dallas Stars was therefore important on a few fronts. The Rangers ripped a season-high 41 shots, responding strongly from a season-low 13 shots in their previous game — a 4-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
New York coach Mike Sullivan felt his team did well at finding ways to boost its attack while not abandoning the Rangers’ defensive identity.
“There’s another element to the game where we can manufacture offense by putting more pucks in play and creating broken plays and making it hard on our opponents,” Sullivan said. ” … There’s no better way, I think, to break coverage down than a shot on goal. It’s hard to defend that next play.”
Both Will Cuylle’s equalizer late in the third period and Vladislav Gavrikov’s overtime winner came on converted rebounds in front of the Dallas net.
The Rangers will be challenged to continue this offensive pressure against the Senators, who have allowed only 25.5 shots per game. However, Ottawa has conceded an average of 3.31 goals per game primarily due to shaky goaltending and one of the league’s worst penalty-kill units.
Since Oct. 28, the Senators are second-to-last in the NHL in both penalty-kill percentage (70.5%) and power-play percentage (9.3%).
Linus Ullmark has a 3.05 goals-against average and an .876 save percentage over 20 starts this season. Backup goalie Leevi Merilainen hasn’t been any better, so Ullmark is likely to continue as Ottawa’s first choice in net.
Igor Shesterkin is enjoying another excellent season despite a lack of offensive help. The New York goaltender has a 2.45 GAA and .912 save percentage over 22 starts.
Artemi Panarin leads the Rangers with 28 points (eight goals, 20 assists). Mika Zibanejad has five points (two goals, three assists) during the forward’s four-game point streak.
Tim Stutzle leads the Senators with 24 points (11 goals, 13 assists). Jake Sanderson is also on a four-game points streak, as the Ottawa defenseman has six points (three goals, three assists) during his hot stretch.
