Ottawa Senators @ Vegas Golden Knights

It's only October and the Senators have a chance to surpass their point total against Western Conference teams from last season.

The big news to watch out for tonight is the health of Linus Ullmark and Shane Pinto. The Sens sent Leevi Merilainen back to Belleville this morning, which bodes well for Ullmark's availability for the game, while Shane Pinto is listed as a game-time decision and Cole Reinhardt has been called up from Belleville.

Given the launch time, we may not receive updated lines. So here's what they were in practice yesterday:

Game notes

• Assuming Ullmark has 100%, do you start him or Forsberg? On the one hand, you probably want to get Ullmark back as soon as possible, but on the other hand, he was only able to train again yesterday and Forsberg had a great performance in Salt Lake City
• A strange statistic to start the season: The Senators have more power play goals than 5-on-5 goals. Part of that is the absurd 40.9% PP%, but the team has also scored eight lackluster 5-on-5 goals in its six games so far. I need to increase this number a bit before the power play comes back down to earth
• Speaking of power play: the Vegas PP is also running hot. While this might initially seem like this could be a special teams battle, it's worth noting that Vegas is drawing the fewest draws and taking the fourth-fewest penalties per game so far this season
• In Las Vegas roster news, Shea Theodore missed her last game due to a day-to-day illness but was at practice on Wednesday. Maybe he had gold fever
• Theodore has proven his worth so far this season. He is currently tied with Jake Sanderson for third among defensemen in points per game
• Note the start time is 6:00 p.m. Eastern. TSN5 and RDS2 will have the broadcast

statistics

Team stats

Player stats