The Ottawa Senators will look for their seventh win in a row against the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday night. The Senators have not lost against the Flyers since November 2024.
On the other side, the Flyers are also winless this season, entering Saturday’s matchup with an 0-6-3 record. That being said, the Senators are cognizant of the desperation they’ll see against an opponent who made it to the second round of the playoffs last season and entered the year with high expectations.
“We’re going to see they’re best. Yeah, we have to make sure we’re ready to match their intensity. I think they’re going to be desperate, they’re going to come ready to play in their building, and yeah, we liked our last game, we’ve just got to follow it up,” said Nick Cousins after morning skate.
“They haven’t had the start they’ve wanted. Playing in their building, they’re going to be a desperate team, and they’re a good team,” said Travis Green. “They had a good year last year, things haven’t gone well, we’re going to need to be ready to go tonight.”
While Jake Sanderson is close to a return — Green expects him to play on Wednesday — the defenceman returning from injury on Saturday will instead be Nikolas Matinpalo, who will return to the lineup after a two-game absence.
“Just play my game, kind of. It’s not too far away, six, seven days, so it’s easy to come back,” said Matinpalo about his mindset for the game.
“Of course, we’ve had some injuries, so everybody needs to play with everybody. But I feel like our D-core this year, everybody kind of plays left or right side, doesn’t matter who your D-partner is, we can still play some very good hockey.”
