With a long seven-game road trip now behind them, the Ottawa Senators settle in for three games at home, starting Thursday night against the New York Rangers. The Sens posted a record of 4-3 on the trip, capping things off with a convincing 5-2 victory in Montreal on Tuesday night.
The Rangers also come in on a high from Tuesday night, defeating the Dallas Stars, one of the very best teams in the league, 3-2 in overtime at MSG. That's the same Stars team than thumped the Sens 6-1 on Sunday.
Where Do They Stand?
Both teams enter the game tied with 30 points, but the Rangers (14-12-2) are a point behind the Pittsburgh Penguins for the final wild card spot. The Senators (13-9-4) are third in the Atlantic, one point behind the Montreal Canadiens (14-9-3), and four points behind the first-place Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Rangers come into this one with what we'll call road-ice advantage. They lead the league in road wins (11) and rank second in road points (23).
What's New?
The Senators are set for some more Halliday time. Lars Eller missed practice on Thursday morning and will not play. He's listed as day-to-day, but when asked for details, Travis Green "didn't want to get into it." Centre Stephen Halliday has been recalled from Belleville and will play in his fifth career NHL game. He has 19 points in 17 AHL games this season.
The Senators were also missing defenseman Artem Zub, whose issues is described as a nagging lower-body injury. So, Jordan Spence moved up to play with Jake Sanderson, while Dennis Gilbert skated alongside Nick Jensen. After being part of the Josh Norris deal in March, Gilbert left the Senators in free agency, then was reacquired last month for Max Guenette. This will be the debut of Gilbert 2.0.
Halliday was here in time for practice, so here's how the chess pieces were aligned.
Tkachuk-Stützle-Zetterlund
— Graeme Nichols (@GraemeNichols) December 4, 2025
Amadio-Pinto-Giroux
Perron-Cozens-Batherson
Greig-Halliday-Cousins/MacDermid
Sanderson-Spence
Kleven-Matinpalo
Gilbert-Jensen
Green also announced after practice that Cousins would play while Sens backup Leevi Merilainen will get the start in goal.
New York State of Mind
Here's how the Rangers lined things up at their Wednesday practice. After taking down Dallas, they changed nothing, and they're not likely to do so in Ottawa on Thursday.
Panarin-Zibanejad-Lafrenière
Brodzinski-Trocheck-Miller
Cuylle-Laba-Berard
Sheary-Carrick-Raddysh
Gavrikov-Schneider
Soucy-Borgen
Robertson-Morrow
Igor Shesterkin is expected to start in goal with Spencer Martin backing him up. Shesterkin is 5-1-2 against the Sens with a goals against average of 1.86 and a save percentage of .939.
Former Senators first-rounder Mika Zibanejad leads the Rangers in goals (9) and power play goals (6), and ranks third in points (20) behind Artem Panarin (28) and Adam Fox (26).
By Steve Warne
The Hockey News - Ottawa