Ottawa Senators (18-19-3) vs. Arizona Coyotes (13-22-5)
The NHL betting action continues with a huge 12-game Thursday card including the cross-conference showdown between the Ottawa Senators and Arizona Coyotes at Mullett Arena in Tempe, Arizona, with the puck drop at 9:00 PM ET.
The Senators and Coyotes wrap up their two-game regular-season set, and Ottawa opens as a -147 moneyline fave with a total of 6.5 goals. Back in October, the Sens smashed the Yotes 6-2 as -260 home favorites.
The Ottawa Senators have dropped two games in a row. After a heavy 8-4 defeat against the Seattle Kraken, the Senators closed down their four-game homestand with a 3-0 loss to the Nashville Predators this past Monday. Ottawa outshot Nashville 38-36, but Juuse Saros had a big game between the pipes.
“I thought there were a lot of guys who played hard, but there were a couple of guys that turned pucks over and it ends up in the back of the net. You can’t. Not in this league,” Senators coach DJ Smith said. “You can’t give up odd-man rushes. We did and both of them ended up in the back of the net.”
“We're good when we play the way the Ottawa Sena tors play. We don't play run and gun, we don't turn pucks over at lines, we're North/South, we dump and chase. It might not be sexy but it works for us.”
Austin Watson on getting back to the Senators brand of hockey pic.twitter.com/hdeXberBmv
— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) January 10, 2023
The Senators, who own the sixth-best power-play percentage in the NHL (41-for-151), went 0-for-5 with the man advantage against the Predators. Ottawa scores just 2.98 goals per game (24th in the league) on a 9.0 shooting percentage (26th). The Sens allow 3.18 goals per contest (18th) despite posting the fifth-best penalty-killing percentage in the NHL (82.9%).
Cam Talbot yielded three goals on 36 shots against Nashville. He also allowed five goals on just 19 shots versus Seattle in relief, and the 35-year-old netminder is now 10-11-1 with a 2.90 GAA and .906 save percentage in 2022-23. Anton Forsberg is 7-8- 2 with a 3.04 GAA and .909 save percentage. The Sens haven’t announced who’ll patrol the crease Thursday at Mullett Arena.