The New York Rangers are in Ottawa tonight to take on The Hamburglar and the Ottawa Senators. The Senators have ridden goalie Andrew Hammond, The Hamburglar, all the way to the second wild card in the Eastern Conference. Hammond is 14-0-1 with a .946 SV% (!!) as the Sens leapfrogged half of the Eastern Conference, including the Boston Bruins, to a playoff spot.
Not to be outdone, Cam Talbot has been anchoring this Rangers team while Henrik Lundqvist is out. He’s got 19 wins and a .927 SV% and has almost-handedly given the Rangers a shot at the President’s Trophy. This is billed as the battle of the backups, but this could be a first round preview. The Rangers have a legit shot at being the #1 seed in the conference, and Ottawa can finish anywhere from #1 wild card to out of the playoffs.
This will be the second of a string of games for the Rangers that sees them playing teams fighting for their playoff lives. While the Rangers are securely in the playoffs, with a chance to clinch tonight, their opponents won’t be. Can they match that desperation?
What have they done lately?
As noted above, the Sens are red hot at 9-1 in their last ten, and pretty much undefeated since The Hamburglar took over. They’ve also had a pretty good stretch of solid puck possession hockey. They are about a 50% possession team, but have been trending up as Dave Cameron took over and they got away from Paul Maurice’s systems (Rangers in blue, Ottawa in black for these charts).
Courtesy of war-on-ice
They’ve certainly been trending up for a while, as have the Rangers. It’s worth noting that when using a rolling ten-game average like above, some games can skew the lines. The Rangers, for example, have had a few poor possession games in a row lately, thus the line trending down at the end.
With hot goaltending, you expect a rise in SPSV%/PDO, and thats what you get with the Sens:
Courtesy of war-on-ice
Before The Hamburglar arrived on the scene, Ottawa was getting some pretty terrible goaltending. Naturally, that has skyrocketed (below), which correlates to the rise in SPSV%/PDO above. While Hammond has been getting all of the attention, Talbot has actually had a meteoric rise in SV% over the last few games.
Courtesy of war-on-ice
It’s clear that goaltending has been the reason for the rise in SPSV%/PDO for both clubs. Ottawa’s SH% has been steady for a while, and the Rangers have seen their SH% tank until very recently.
Courtesy of war-on-ice
The Rangers are a better club than Ottawa, at least on paper, but it’s about when you play teams. The Sens are white-hot and fighting for their playoff lives. They will come out hard against the Rangers, who will need to use their superior speed to keep them at bay.
Sens Systems
Under Dave Cameron, the Sens have simplified their game a bit. They play an aggressive 2-1-2 forecheck, sending two guys in to pressure the puck. They sometimes leave them high in the zone, setting up two at the blue line and one at the red line to clog the neutral zone. In the defensive zone, the Sens play a strong side overload, which is similar to what the Rangers play. The difference is that the Sens go into a low zone collapse if the puck gets to the weak side point, whereas the Rangers switch to man when the puck gets deep.
On special teams, the Sens run a standard umbrella powerplay and a hybrid penalty kill.
Sens Lines
Mike Hoffman-Mika Zibanejad-Bobby Ryan
Alex Chiasson-Kyle Turris-Mark Stone
Erik Condra-Jean-Gabriel Pageau-Curtis Lazar
Colin Greening-David Legwand-Zack Smith
Marc Methot-Erik Karlsson
Patrick Wiercioch-Cody Ceci
Mark Borowiecki-Eric Gryba
PP1: Ryan-Legwand-Zibanejad-Wiercioch-Karlsson
PP2: Stone-Turris-Hoffman-Chiasson-Ceci
PK: Pageau, Condra, Legwand, Stone, Methot, Borowiecki, Ceci, Gryba
Andrew Hammond gets the start.
Rangers Lines
Chris Kreider–Derek Stepan–Rick Nash
Mats Zuccarello–Derick Brassard–J.T. Miller
Carl Hagelin–Kevin Hayes–Jesper Fast
Tanner Glass–Dominic Moore–James Sheppard
Marc Staal–Ryan McDonagh
Keith Yandle–Dan Girardi
Matt Hunwick–Dan Boyle
PP1: Stepan, Brassard, Kreider, Nash, Yandle
PP2: Miller, Hayes, Zuccarello, Boyle, McDonagh
PK: Stepan, Nash, Girardi, Staal, Moore, Fast, Hunwick, Boyle, Hagelin, Yandle, McDonagh,
Cam Talbot is in net.
Scratches/Injuries: Kevin Klein (arm), Martin St. Louis (knee)
Crazy Prediction: The Hamburglar gets dealt his first regulation loss.
Be sure to check out our ticket link if you’re looking for tickets to the game. Game time is 7:30pm on MSG.
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