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GAME DAY: Senators versus Vegas

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Ottawa Senators at Vegas Golden Knights, Thursday, 10 p.m., T-Mobile Arena. TV: TSN 5, RDS. Radio: TSN 1200-AM, Unique 94,5-FM

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Five keys to the game

1-Energy: The Senators are certainly hoping the sunshine gives them a lot more of it than they had in Monday’s listless 2-0 defeat to the Minnesota Wild.

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2-Letting loose on the power play: The pressure is mounting on the Senators to finally do something — anything — with the man advantage. They’ve come up empty through the opening five games of the season.

3-Vegas motivation: The Golden Knights are off to a modest 4-3 start, but they’re not pleased after blowing a 2-1 lead in Tuesday’s 5-2 defeat to Nashville. They will be hungry for a good result against the Senators.

4-Improving in goal: Anders Nilsson was his own worst critic following a 6-4 loss to St. Louis last week, his one and only start so far. He needs to bump up his early numbers (5.08 goals-against and .861 save percentage) in order to earn future starts in what was designed to be a 50/50 split with Craig Anderson.

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5-Sticking with the young line: Senators coach D.J. Smith has mixed and matched forwards, with one notable exception: Colin White and Brady Tkachuk remain together. They’re still with each other — Anthony Duclair will likely start with them Thursday — but for how long?

The big matchup

Mark Stone vs. Jean-Gabriel Pageau: Vegas coach Gerard Gallant is, ultimately, in control of the matchups, and he could have a field day considering he owns such a balanced, deep roster.

Stone, the ex-Senator, typically plays with Max Pacioretty and Paul Stastny, and in a perfect world Senators coach D.J. Smith would like to shut down that trio as much as possible.

Usually, Pageau — Stone’s ex-linemate — would get the assignment to check against the opposition’s best.

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This could be interesting to watch. The Senators have played only one road game, the season opener against Toronto, and it was a tough matchup night for the rebuilding Senators.

Special teams

Senators: PP: 0.0 (30th) PK: 81.8 (14th)

Golden Knights: PP: 29.2 (6th), PK: 92.6 (3rd)

Senators’ lines

Brady Tkachuk-Colin White-Anthony Duclair

Tyler Ennis-Chris Tierney-Bobby Ryan

Vladislav Namestnikov-Jean-Gabriel Pageau-Connor Brown

Nick Paul-Jordan Szwarz-Mikkel Boedker

Defence

Thomas Chabot-Nikita Zaitsev

Erik Brannstrom-Ron Hainsey

Mark Borowiecki-Dylan DeMelo

Goalies

Anders Nilsson

Craig Anderson

Sick bay

Rudolfs Balcers

Golden Knights’ lines

Jonathan Marchessault-William Karlsson-Reilly Smith

Max Pacioretty-Paul Stastny-Mark Stone

Valentin Zykov-Cody Eakin-Cody Glass

Will Carrier-Tomas Nosek-Ryan Reaves

Defence

Brayden McNabb-Shea Theodore

Jon Merrill-Nick Holden

Nicolas Hague-Deryk Engelland

Goalies

Marc-Andre Fleury

Oscar Dansk

Sick bay

Alex Tuch, Nate Schmidt, Malcolm Subban


ALSO IN THE NEWS

WARRENSPIECE: Power-play problems, Duclair’s opening, policing the streets and McKenna’s lost jersey

Tkachuk maintains strong friendship with Stone

The Brannwagon returns to Vegas

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