Devils at Senators preview

DEVILS (12-19-6) at SENATORS (16-18-4)
5 p.m. ET; RDS2, TSN5, MSG, NHL.TV

The forward missed 26 games after sustaining a facial injury when he collided with Boston Bruins forward David Backes during a 5-2 loss at TD Garden. Sabourin has two points (one goal, one assist) in 11 games this season.
Goalie Craig Anderson will start for the Senators, who are 5-2-3 in their past 10 games following a five-game losing streak.
Goalie Mackenzie Blackwood will start for the Devils, who are 3-8-2 in their past 13 games.

Players to watch

Devils forward Nikita Gusev has seven points (one goal, six assists) in his past five games.
Senators forward Anthony Duclair has 15 points (11 goals, four assists) in his past 11 games.

They said it

"They're awesome players to play with. They're fast, they're skilled, we think hockey the same way, so it makes it easy to play with them. When we play like we did [Friday] with a lot of speed and try to be hard for the other team to play against, it works well for us." -- Devils forward Jesper Bratt on the combined nine points between him, center Nico Hischier and forward Kyle Palmieri in a 5-4 overtime loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Friday
"We had [three] days off, and just that kind of makes you feel a little rusty when you get back on the ice. Just the fact, to have two practices and get the legs going, get the hands going again and everything, I think guys are really excited to get going [Saturday]." -- Senators defenseman Thomas Chabot

Devils projected lineup

Jesper Bratt -- Nico Hischier -- Kyle Palmieri
Blake Coleman -- Travis Zajac -- Nikita Gusev
Miles Wood -- Jack Hughes -- Wayne Simmonds
Jesper Boqvist -- Pavel Zacha -- John Hayden
Andy Greene -- P.K. Subban
Connor Carrick -- Sami Vatanen
Mirco Mueller -- Damon Severson
Mackenzie Blackwood
Gilles Senn
Scratched: Kevin Rooney
Injured: Matt Tennyson (upper body), Will Butcher (undisclosed)

Senators projected lineup

Brady Tkachuk -- Jean-Gabriel Pageau -- Connor Brown
Vladislav Namestnikov -- Artem Anisimov -- Colin White
Tyler Ennis -- Chris Tierney -- Anthony Duclair
Nicholas Paul --
J.C. Beaudin
-- Scott Sabourin
Thomas Chabot -- Cody Goloubef
Mark Borowiecki -- Erik Brannstrom
Andreas Englund --
Christian Jaros
Craig Anderson
Marcus Hogberg
Scratched: Mikkel Boedker
Injured: Dylan DeMelo (finger), Nikita Zaitsev (undisclosed), Anders Nilsson (concussion), Ron Hainsey (undisclosed)

Status report

Zacha, who missed the game on Friday with a lower-body injury, is a "real good possibility" to play, Devils coach Alain Nasreddine said. … Butcher is day-to-day and will not play. … New Jersey activated goalie Louis Domingue and assigned him to Binghamton of the American Hockey League. ... Senators forward Logan Brown was returned to Belleville of the AHL, and Jaros was recalled Saturday.

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Stat pack

Palmieri has seven points (four goals, three assists) in his past six games. … Duclair (11) needs two goals to tie Ottawa's record for goals in a month, set by Daniel Alfredsson (13) in November 2005.