With their season hanging in the balance, the Senators briefly clawed their way back into a playoff spot this week, only to be pushed right back out. Now, with ten games left, they head into Tampa Bay on Saturday afternoon (1 p.m., TSN5, TVAS), staring down a Stanley Cup contender and the NHL’s hottest scorer.

The Standings

The Senators enter play on Saturday just one point behind the New York Islanders. Ottawa actually holds a slightly better points percentage than the Isles, who’ve played one more game.

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The Sens are also two points back of the Boston Bruins (WC1) and four points behind the Montreal Canadiens (A3).

Their opponent today, the Tampa Bay Lightning (A2), are battling for top spot in both the Atlantic Division and the Eastern Conference. Tampa sits two points back of Buffalo (A1) with two games in hand, and two points behind the Carolina Hurricanes for the conference lead.

Meanwhile, the Detroit Red Wings are once again in a virtual tie with Ottawa. The out-of-town scoreboard has done the Senators no favours… again. For the second time this week, the Buffalo Sabres failed to help Ottawa’s cause, falling 5–2 to Detroit on Friday night.

Around the league on Saturday, the Islanders host the Panthers (1 p.m.), Boston welcomes Minnesota (5 p.m.), and Detroit hosts Philadelphia (8 p.m.).

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On Tuesday night, the Senators briefly moved into a playoff spot for the first time in over four months. But a shootout loss to Pittsburgh on Thursday, combined with the usual grim out-of-town results, quickly erased that progress.

The Senators haven’t played Tampa since opening night on Oct. 9 when they came away with a 5-4 victory on a late goal by Shane Pinto.

Lineup Notes / Injuries

Both teams have recently been without their top defencemen, but Jake Sanderson is on the trip and could be nearing a return. Lassi Thomson is also close. Meanwhile, Thomas Chabot is out for at least the remainder of the regular season, and possibly longer.

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Ottawa may need to continue leaning on rookies Carter Yakemchuk and Jorian Donovan, who both saw increased ice time in Thursday’s game. Donovan jumped from 4:42 in his NHL debut to 9:22 against Pittsburgh, while Yakemchuk went from 12:46 to 17:42 and even saw time in overtime.

The Lightning will be without Victor Hedman, who is on personal leave. Interestingly, Linus Ullmark noted that Hedman was one of his biggest supports during his own recent personal leave of absence in January. The Lightning haven’t said anything about Hedman’s situation, just asking that Hedman’s privacy be respected at this time.

Kucherov’s Historical Heater

Ottawa’s fate on Saturday may hinge on containing Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov, the most dangerous player on either roster. Kucherov has an astonishing 104 points over his last 50 games, becoming just the second player in this millennium (Connor McDavid, 2021–22) to hit 100 points in a 50-game span.

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The 32-year-old Russian is also tied with McDavid at 121 points this season and has more assists (81) than any Senator has points. Tim Stützle leads Ottawa with 75.

Projected Lineups

(As of Friday, as per NHL.com)

Senators

Drake Batherson – Tim Stützle – Claude Giroux
Brady Tkachuk – Dylan Cozens – Ridly Greig
Nick Cousins – Shane Pinto – Michael Amadio
Warren Foegele – Lars Eller – Fabian Zetterlund

Tyler Kleven – Artem Zub
Jordan Spence – Nikolas Matinpalo
Jorian Donovan – Carter Yakemchuk

Linus Ullmark
James Reimer

Scratched: Stephen Halliday, Kurtis MacDermid
Injured: Thomas Chabot (upper body), Jake Sanderson (upper body), Nick Jensen (lower body), Dennis Gilbert (upper body), Lassi Thomson (lower body)

Lightning

Brandon Hagel – Anthony Cirelli – Nikita Kucherov
Gage Goncalves – Brayden Point – Jake Guentzel
Zemgus Girgensons – Yanni Gourde – Pontus Holmberg
Corey Perry – Nick Paul – Oliver Bjorkstrand

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Darren Raddysh – J.J. Moser
Ryan McDonagh – Erik Cernak
Emil Lilleberg – Charle-Edouard D’Astous

Andrei Vasilevskiy
Jonas Johansson

Scratched: Scott Sabourin, Steven Santini, Victor Hedman Injured: Declan Carlile (undisclosed), Max Crozier (core muscle), Dominic James (lower body)

Steve Warne
The Hockey News