Ottawa vs Vegas: The Senators to beat the bleeding Knights

Ottawa lost both back-to-back away games, taking turns failing against Chicago and Minnesota. D.J. Smith’s next meeting will be on home ice against Vegas. The Senators are not considered favourites here either, but injuries have weakened the Godin Knights, so Ottawa still have a chance of success.

Ahead of their meeting at Canadian Tire Centre, the Senators had an away trip. They got off to a brilliant start, as Ottawa comfortably defeated Dallas, 4-1. But then the team from the Canadian capital had the already mentioned unfortunate back-to-back. On the second day, the Senators could barely manage to cope with Minnesota, losing to Kirill Kaprizov and his team only in overtime. In contrast, on the first day, the Senators were pummeled by Chicago, who had their first win of the season, which started with nine straight defeats for the Blackhawks. 1-5 is almost a big score, but Ottawa shouldn’t be scolded after all. Patrick Kane made a surprise appearance in this game, recovering from an illness. The legendary forward scored a hat trick, effectively single-handedly solving the game. What can you do? When stars of this calibre go wild, they are virtually unstoppable.

Peter DeBoer’s team has had a tremendous injury problem this early in the season. And, unfortunately for the Knights, the infirmary is only getting bigger. Ahead of the game in Ottawa, six hockey players are there, including top scoring forwards Pacioretty and Stone.

For all the difficulties, it’s worth noting that Vegas are moving decently through the season’s distance. Although they lost 0-4 away to Toronto in their previous game, they had picked up three straight wins before that. The Knights, even with a weakened squad, were happy to make it up to Colorado once again by beating the Avalanche 3-1 away. They also picked up tough games against Dallas and Anaheim, 3-2 in overtime and 5-4 in a shootout, respectively.

Vegas get points with great difficulty. Well, what can you do when important performers are permanently absent in such numbers. In their nine games played this season, the Golden Knights have just two wins in regulation time - over Seattle in their first game and over Colorado, whom the Golden Knights have long since figured out to mock periodically under various circumstances.

Ottawa have a good chance of success in the upcoming game. If not to win, the Senators can undoubtedly count on points scored. Vegas have a decreased offensive potential due to the absence of Stone and Pacioretty, and Robin Lehner in goal is not always reliable yet, indeed already questioning the choice of his main goalie for the new season.

We predict that Ottawa will be close to winning.

• 1X and Total Under 7.5 for 2.41;
• W1 in regulation time for 2.50;
• Correct score 3-2 for 10.00.