Ottawa's defense is where the questions are. Thomas Chabot, the captain, left the 3-1 loss in Philadelphia after 2 periods with an upper-body injury, and Travis Green has said he is likely out a week or two. Thursday falls inside that window. Jake Sanderson is set to return against Florida after missing 8 games with a lower-body injury, so the blue line Ottawa uses on Thursday could look very different from the one it has played with all month.
Both teams' records have some ugly losses in them. Ottawa got beaten 7-2 at home by St. Louis in mid-October and has turned plenty of its other games into 1-goal grinds, beating Nashville 3-2 and the Islanders 2-1. The Senators sit 6-3-0 and 3rd in the Atlantic as of this week, and the Florida game will change that before this one starts. San Jose gave up 6 at home to Boston before the trip and has given up 3 or more in 4 of its last 5. That is a lot of chances against for a team trying to climb back to .500 hockey and above.
Ottawa will also be without William Eklund for a long time after ankle tendon surgery, which takes a forward out of the middle of the lineup. San Jose is still missing Wennberg at center and has Kyle Keyser on non-roster IR, so the Sharks' depth down the middle is thin too. The deciding factors here are simple: does Celebrini's lower body hold up, and how much does Ottawa have left after Florida? Both answers come in before puck drop, and right now neither one is settled.