Tuesday, January 20, 2026 – 7:00 PM ET
Nationwide Arena – Columbus, Ohio
TV: FDSNOH; Radio: 93.3 FM
Ottawa Senators (22-19-7, 51 points, 8th Atlantic, 14th East)
at
Columbus Blue Jackets (22-19-7, 51 points, 7th Metro, 15th East)
Notes
These teams are like the Spiderman pointing meme. It’s important to win this one and leap another team in the Eastern conference standings.
Elvis Merzlikins will start for the third game in a row. Kind of odd, but hard to say he hasn’t earned it.
The defense in front of him won’t have Dante Fabbro, and it doesn’t appear Denton Mateychuk is ready to return quite yet. Eeeep.
Ottawa’s big weakness is in net, so it will be important for the Jackets to generate plenty of chances to take advantage of that.
Speaking of goalies, GOALIE FIGHT
Stats
| Ottawa | Columbus | |
| 3.25 (10) | GPG | 2.98 (20) |
| 3.40 (29) | GAPG | 3.31 (24) |
| 24.4 (7) | PP% | 20.0 (17) |
| 71.5 (32) | PK% | 74.8 (29) |
| 52.6 (6) | 5v5 Shot Attempt % | 50.6 (14) |
| 53.8 (4) | 5v5 Unblocked Shot Attempt % | 49.8 (16) |
| 10.0 (13) | 5v5 Shooting % | 9.0 (18) |
| 88.7 (32) | 5v5 Save % | 91.1 (11) |
| Tim Stutzle (21) | G Leader | Z. Werenski, K. Marchenko (18) |
| Jake Sanderson (29) | A Leader | Zach Werenski (34) |
| Tim Stutzle (49) | P Leader | Zach Werenski (52) |
| N. Cousins, R. Greig (57) | PIM Leader | Mathieu Olivier (60) |
| 11-10-3 | Home/Road | 11-7-4 |
| 4-4-2 | Last 10 | 5-4-1 |
Projected Lineups
Columbus Blue Jackets
| Cole Sillinger | Adam Fantilli | Kirill Marchenko |
| Boone Jenner | Sean Monahan | Kent Johnson |
| Danton Heinen | Charlie Coyle | Mathieu Olivier |
| Dmitri Voronkov | Brendan Gaunce | Zach Aston-Reese |
| Zach Werenski | Damon Severson |
| Ivan Provorov | Erik Gudbranson |
| Egor Zamula | Jake Christiansen |
| Elvis Merzlikins |
| Jet Greaves |
Ottawa Senators
| Brady Tkachuk | Dylan Cozens | Ridly Greig |
| Drake Batherson | Tim Stutzle | Fabian Zetterlund |
| Michael Amadio | Shane Pinto | Claude Giroux |
| Nick Cousins | Lars Eller | David Perron |
| Jake Sanderson | Artem Zub |
| Thomas Chabot | Nick Jensen |
| Tyler Kleven | Jordan Spence |
| Leevi Merilainen |
| James Reimer |