Game Day 5: OTT at SEA

The set up:

Tonight marks the second game of a five-game road trip for the Senators and their final meeting against Seattle this season. After coming up short against Vancouver on Tuesday the Sens will look to find the form they had in their first meeting against Seattle a month ago when they walked away with the 2-0 win at Canadian Tire Centre.

The Senators may well lean on their veteran players experience tonight as they look to slow down a formidable opponent in the Kraken. Recently it has been savvy veteran Claude Giroux who has been leading the charge for the Senators, with a goal and an assist last game he showed patience to try to will the team back into the mix as they closed the deficit to just two goals after falling behind 5-0. Right alongside of him it was Vladimir Tarasenko adding two-goals and playing with a similar patience that the Sens will look to glean from their veteran leadership here tonight.

Seattle comes into tonight hot, riding a nine-game point streak including big wins over the Vegas Golden Knights, LA Kings and Florida Panthers. 7-1-2 in their last ten, the Kraken have gotten contributions from all over with 15 skaters with double-digit points led by defenceman Vince Dunn with 31. The Senators will be tasked with slowing down Jared McCann, Oliver Bjorkstrand, and Eeli Tolvanen with 14, 11 and 10 goals respectively.

Roster report:

The Senators held an optional skate this morning so we did not get a full look at the lines. Jacques Martin mentioned in his pre-game availability that Jacob Bernard-Docker will come out of the line up and that Zack MacEwen will be unavailable due to illness.Below is how the team lined up during practice yesterday at Climate Pledge Arena:

Brady Tkachuk - Josh Norris - Drake Batherson
Vladimir Tarasenko - Tim Stützle - Claude Giroux
Dominik Kubalik - Ridly Greig - Parker Kelly
Angus Crookshank - Mark Kastelic - Zack MacEwen

Erik Brännström - Jake Sanderson 
Thomas Chabot - Artem Zub
Jakob Chychrun - Travis Hamonic

Who to watch:

The last outing against Vancouver didn't go the way the Sens would have liked it to, however one bright spot for them was the play of their veteran leaders and in particular Vladimir Tarasenko. In a game where the Senators found the back of the net three times, Tarasenko was responsible for two of them giving the team a glimpse of hope making it a two goal deficit late in the third.

On the season Tarasenko has found the back of the net eight times and added 16 helpers for 24 total points as he has filled whatever role the team has asked of him playing up and down the line up. The twelfth-year forward has an established reputation as a goal scorer in this league and fresh off a two-goal outing look for him to capitalize and the flood gates may just break open.

In his twelve seasons he has amassed 278 goals and 320 assists for 598 career points meaning that he sits just two away from crossing the 600 mark on his career.

History of Sens vs Kraken:

Given that this is just Seattle's third season in the league, the history between these two clubs is brief. In their five previous match ups, the Senators hold a narrow edge with a 3-2-0 record. The last outing which the Senators walked away with the 2-0 victory marked the first shutout in the series.

While the Senators have the edge in games, it's the Kraken that hold the advantage in goal socring 19-17 in the five games. Most of that edge came from last year's 8-4 victory at Canadian Tire Centre, which was both the largest margin of victory and the most goals scored in a game between these two.

Where to watch:

Tonight's game will be carried live on TSN5 and RDS in English and French respectively. Additionally, TSN1200 and Unique FM 94,5 have you covered on the radio with the English and French calls.