The Dallas Stars have started their season out 4-0-1 and are one of just four teams without a regulation loss this season. This road trip began with a frustrating loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs in overtime followed by a decisive victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday. Tonight, the Stars will take on a young and very skilled Ottawa Senators team who won their last three home games at the Canadian Tire Centre where they are undefeated so far this season. Last season, Dallas fell to Ottawa in both of their head-to-head matchups.
Young Guns In Ottawa
There has been a lot of hype surrounding the Ottawa Senators over the offseason and into the start of this new campaign. This is a team that has gone through quite the personnel turnover in the last year and find themselves with a young group of talented players who can rack up some points offensively. In their last three games they have scored 18 goals on home ice. While their offense has started to click after their first two road losses to Buffalo and Toronto beginning the season, their defense is susceptible to giving up some goals allowing nine in their last three games.
Team Leading Sens To Watch
Brady Tkachuk – Four goals and eight points total
Drake Batherson – Three goals and eight points total
Shane Pinto – On a four-game goal streak and five points total
Alex DeBrincat – On a four-game point streak and five points total
Dealing With Injuries In Ottawa
Before the season began goaltender Cam Talbot, who was traded over from the Minnesota Wild, went down with an upper-body injury. He is expected to miss 5-7 weeks. Because of this, the Senators picked up Magnus Hellberg off waivers from the Seattle Kraken on October 3rd. So far this season, goalie, Anton Forsberg, has played every minute, but at some point, the Sens are going to need Hellberg to step up to relieve Forsberg for some games.
Ottawa also had another setback recently when second line center, Josh Norris, went down with a recurring shoulder injury in their last game against Arizona. Veteran, Derick Brassard, who was signed to a one-year deal in the offseason is likely to get his first game of the season after the injury to Norris.
Dallas Stars Look To Cut Out The Penalties
The Stars have done well this season offensively; however, they have taken too many trips to the penalty box and look to stop that dangerous trend. Dallas has to walk the line of playing aggressively without taking unnecessary penalties. Their outstanding penalty kill can be tested only so many times before it cracks. Also, penalty minutes hamper the Stars’ ability to roll four lines smoothly leaving offensive threats like Jason Robertson and Mason Marchment on the bench spectating.
Monday Matchups
It will be interesting to see if Dallas can pick apart this defensive core for the Senators who are still looking to find their identity. The Stars have some elite defenders, but they are going to have to be at their best to keep Tkachuk and the Sens off the scoresheet. Listed below are the projected lineups for each team in Monday’s tilt in Ottawa.
Ottawa Senators
Brady Tkachuk—Tim Stutzle—Drake Batherson
Alex DeBrincat—Derick Brassard—Claude Giroux
Tyler Motte—Shane Pinto—Mathieu Joseph
Parker Kelly—Mark Kastelic—Austin Watson
Thomas Chabot—Artem Zub
Jake Sanderson—Travis Hamonic
Erik Brannstrom—Nick Holden
Anton Forsberg
Dylan Gambrell and Nikita Zaitsev are healthy scratches
Dallas Stars
Jason Robertson—Roope Hintz—Joe Pavelski
Mason Marchment—Tyler Seguin—Jacob Peterson
Jamie Benn—Wyatt Johnston—Ty Dellandrea
Radek Faksa—Luke Glendening—Joel Kiviranta
Miro Heiskanen—Colin Miller
Ryan Suter—Jani Hakanpaa
Esa Lindell—Nils Lundkvist
Scott Wedgewood
Denis Gurianov and Joel Hanley are healthy scratches, and head coach Pete DeBoer had this to say about the Gurianov scratch:
Pete DeBoer on the message to Denis Gurianov. pic.twitter.com/I16LvOe4cV
— Matthew DeFranks (@MDeFranks) October 24, 2022
Where To Watch
Monday night’s game will be aired on Bally Sports Southwest at 6:00 PM CDT and is available to listen to via the Ticket 96.7 FM/1310 AM.