The NHL and NHLPA announced yesterday that the next two Sens games (Tuesday vs St. Louis & Thursday against Carolina) are being postponed until after the Holiday break – December 26th.
Schedule update: For precautionary reasons, the #Sens will not practice again until after the @NHL Christmas break.
The team's next practice date and time will be provided once determined.
— Sens Communications (@Media_Sens) December 20, 2021
Ottawa is currently scheduled to play the Washington Capitals on December 27th, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if that game’s status is TBD with all of the outbreaks in the NHL right now. With all that, let’s look at where the Sens are as we head into the holiday break!
Record
The Sens are 9-17-2, good enough for 20 points through their first 28 games of the season. They sit 3 points up on the Montreal Canadiens and 5 behind the Buffalo Sabres in the Atlantic Division. Ottawa’s 15th out of 16 Eastern Conference teams and 30th in the NHL.
The team went 3-4 in October, 1-10-1 during November and 5-3-1 so far in December. Their power-play is 13thin the NHL, at 19.8 %, while their penalty kill is 23rd in the league at 77.8%. They’ve scored 78 goals for (23rd) and given up 101 (7th most) to start the year.
Stats
Drake Batherson leads the Ottawa Senators in points with 28 through the 23 games he’s played. Josh Norris and Drake Brady Tkachuk are the next highest-scoring Senators with 22 points. Norris has the most goals with 14, while Tkachuk is close behind with 12. Connor Brown and Thomas Chabot round out the top 5 scorers, tied with 17 points. Tim Stutzle started the season slowly but now has 5 goals and 15 points on the year. The rest of their stats can be found here.
Goalies
Anton Forsberg leads the Sens goaltender with a record of 6-5-1 on the season. During December, Forsberg has been the go-to goalie after a huge 47 save performance against the Hurricanes. He has a 3.16 goals-against average and .908 save %.
Filip Gustavsson has been the back-up to Forsberg lately and has a record of 3-7-1 with a 3.70 GAA and .893 save %. Gustavsson picked up where he left off last season but cooled off in his last few starts. Matt Murray finds himself in Belleville right now after an 0-5 start to the season with a 3.26 GAA and .890 save %.
Injuries
The Sens lost Colin White to a shoulder injury during the preseason; he’s hopeful to be back before the end of the season.
Shane Pinto injured his shoulder as well, back on November 12th. He’s undergone surgery and may be able to return before the season ends.
Erik Brannstrom fractured his hand on November 12th and should be back sometime in early January.
Josh Brown suffered an upper-body injury on November 21st and is out 4-6 weeks.
Nikita Zaitsev has a heel injury after going into the boards awkwardly on December 15th. He’s scheduled to miss around 4 weeks.
By Steve Bunda
