Ottawa Senators vs New Jersey Devils game preview

The Ottawa Senators will face the New Jersey Devils Sunday afternoon at 5:00 Eastern Time.

This is the second meeting of the year for these two teams, the last one the Ottawa Senators were victorious with a 4-2 victory. Thanks to a J.G. Pageau hat trick to bury the Devils.

The Devils are one of two teams that sit below the Senators in the standings, with the Detroit Red Wings. They currently have a record of 12-19-6, while the Senators are at 16-18-4.

A team that already boasts two first overall picks, Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes. Those two are expected to carry the load offensively, in the absence of Taylor Hall.

Ottawa’s power play is still ranked dead last in the league with a 11.7% efficiency rate but has seen an uptick in the last few games, going 3-for-10.

New Jersey’s power play isn’t much better at 29th in the league, and 13.5%.

Penalty killing is a different story for these two teams. Ottawa is one of the better teams in the league as far as penalty killing with 82.4%, ranked 10th. While New Jersey is more middle of the pack in that category, with 79.7%, good for 20th in the league.

The Senators called up J.C. Beaudin and Christian Jaros from Belleville, and Scott Sabourin will play for the first time in 25 games.

The Devils are missing Matt Tennyson and Louis Domingue, while the Senators injury list is a tad bit longer, with Hainsey, Demelo, Nilsson, Wolanin and Zaitsev all out for the game.

All eyes will be on Ottawa defenceman, Thomas Chabot for this game, to see if he reaches 30 minutes in ice time again.

Starting goalies: Craig Anderson for Ottawa, and Mackenzie Blackwood for New Jersey.

Bold prediction: The Senators will roll over the Devils by a score of 5-2, with a great performance in net by Craig Anderson, turning away at least 30 shots.