Stars at Senators
The Ottawa Senators look to rebound from two of their worst performances of the season when they host the similarly struggling Dallas Stars on Thursday night. The Senators were outscored 10-0 in losses to Buffalo and St. Louis, leaving them with two wins in their last seven games (2-3-2) as they attempt hold on to an Eastern Conference playoff position.
“We haven’t really played the way we should have played over the course of the last few games,” Ottawa captain and points leader Erik Karlsson told reporters. “Everybody wants to be accountable and everybody is accountable. I think we have to do a lot more to give our goalies a chance.” Dallas, which had the most points in the Western Conference last season, is fading out of the playoff picture with three straight losses after a 3-1 setback at Toronto on Tuesday. Tyler Seguin owns goals in back-to-back games and captain Jamie Benn boasts 11 points in nine games, but the Stars are almost at the bottom of the league in goals-against per game (3.17). “I think we’re all sick of talking about it,” Seguin told reporters. “You look yourself in the mirror, dig deeper.”
TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, FSN Southwest Plus (Dallas), RDS2, TSN5 (Ottawa)
ABOUT THE STARS (21-23-10): Seguin reached 20 goals for the fourth straight season Tuesday to take over the team lead – one better than Patrick Eaves – and pushed his team-high point total to 51, which is five more than Benn. Dallas allowed a power-play goal in seven straight games - going 11-for-19 in that span – and is at the bottom of the league in penalty killing (73.3 percent). Jamie Oleksiak (hand), out for almost a month, is nearing a return to the lineup while center Jason Spezza (upper-body) was placed on injured reserve, retroactive to Feb. 2.
ABOUT THE SENATORS (27-18-6): Ottawa scored 21 goals in five games before coming up empty on 67 combined shots over the past two games, including an embarrassing 6-0 setback against St. Louis at home Tuesday. Karlsson had five of his team-best 44 points in two games before the 4-0 loss to Buffalo on Saturday while Mark Stone is next with 39, and Mike Hoffman boasts eight goals in the last 12 contests. Goalie Mike Condon (15-9-5, .911 save percentage), who gave 14 goals in his last four games, was rested Tuesday but is expected back against the Stars.
OVERTIME
1. The Stars are 8-1-0 in the last nine meetings, including four straight wins in Ottawa.
2. Ottawa C Tommy Wingels has one point in five games - none in the last four - since being acquired from San Jose.
3. Dallas came into Wednesday 19th in the league on the power play (17.9) after finishing fourth in 2015-16 (22.1).