GAME DAY: Like A Kid At Christmas Time, The Ottawa Senators Have Been Extra Good In December

Like a kid at Christmas time, the Ottawa Senators have been extra good in December.

At 5-1-1, they’re having the best December of any team in the NHL so far. Their early Christmas gift for being good has been a chance to slide into the final playoff spot in the NHL’s Eastern Conference. Naturally, they’ll need to maintain this level of play if they want to stay in contention.

Tonight, the Senators will try to extend their season-high three-game winning streak with a visit to Seattle against the Kraken.

On the Road Again: It’s the start of nine games on the road, which is probably a little more dramatic-sounding than it is. The Sens will play four games out west, then enjoy five days without games, including Christmas. The long stretch of road games is due to the World Juniors being held in Ottawa over the holidays.

The matchup: Ottawa Senators (15-13-2) at Seattle Kraken (15-15-2)
Faceoff: 10 pm Eastern (TSN5, RDS)

The opponent: Like the Senators, the Kraken has 32 points, but the playoff bar is a little higher out west. Seattle is four points and four teams out of the final wild card. They’ll be in a foul mood after getting thumped by the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-1 on Saturday night. This will be their last home game before the holidays as they begin a four-game road trip in Chicago against the Blackhawks.

Something for Joey: Former Sens goalie Joey Daccord is the Kraken’s number-one goalie, starting 20 of their 32 games this season. His record is 12-6-2 with a 2.42 GA and a .916 save percentage after he signed a big new contract in October.

In a case of startlingly poor asset management, Daccord was claimed in the expansion draft so the Sens could, instead, protect Filip Gustavsson. Gustavsson, currently a top five goalie statistically, was traded a year later for Cam Talbot. And then Talbot was allowed to walk into free agency.

According to TSN 1200, it looks like Daccord will start against his old team on Tuesday night.

Sens Goalie News: This might have been a good time to start Anton Forsberg, who shutout the Kraken last month in Ottawa for his second shutout in three games. But Forsberg has since gone cold and was injured on the weekend.

Leevi Merilainen is on the trip as the backup. This nine-game road trip does have three back to back situations so it will be interesting to monitor how Travis Green handles things between the pipes. On a personal five game winning streak, Linus Ullmark is an easy man to start these days, named the NHL’s third star of the week yesterday.

Since they won’t skate today in Seattle, here’s how the Senators will line up tonight, based on yesterday’s practice:

Senators lines from practice today in Seattle.

Tkachuk-Norris-Batherson
Giroux-Stützle-Gaudette
Cousins-Pinto-Amadio
Gregor-Ostapchuk-Greig

Sanderson-Hamonic
Chabot-Jensen
Kleven-JBD

Ullmark
Merilainen

Zub, Perron and Forsberg not on the trip.

— TSN 1200 Ottawa (@TSN1200) December 16, 2024