Senators vs Red Wings: Prediction, Team News and Detroit’s Captaincy Problem

Detroit has lost both its games and no longer has a captain. Dylan Larkin asked to be traded over the summer, was stripped of the captaincy for it, and is now on injured reserve with an upper-body problem.

Senators vs Red Wings is the first home win either side of that mess might produce. Ottawa arrives unbeaten but tired, on the second night of a back-to-back.

How to watch

TSN5 and RDS2 have it in Canada. Regional coverage can differ from the national listing, and our how to watch the NHL in Canada page has the full picture.

Senators vs Red Wings odds

No Canadian price was up for this one on 5 October. Every posted board sits on our NHL odds page and we will add this one when it lands.

Detroit has a captaincy problem and an injury list

Larkin asked for a trade in the off-season. Detroit took the C off him and he has not played a competitive game since, missing both openers with an upper-body injury picked up in the preseason. ESPN’s own note raises the question of whether he will want to play for the club once he is fit.

Thirty-four goals and 67 points last season walk out of the lineup with him. Marco Kasper is also out. Simon Edvinsson has still not signed, having attended camp as a restricted free agent and then gone to Sweden when the two sides could not agree.

The rest of it is still a decent team. Alex DeBrincat scored 41 goals and 85 points, 18th in the league. Lucas Raymond added 76 points and Moritz Seider 60 from the blue line at plus 15.

Viktor Arvidsson arrived from Boston on the back of 25 goals and a plus 20, and scored against Winnipeg on Sunday. John Gibson is in goal after 57 games last season at 29-22-4 and a .901 save percentage.

How they compare

Seven points separated these two last season and Detroit conceded fifteen more goals. Neither number suggests a comfortable night for anybody.

Ottawa is on the second night of a back-to-back

The Senators played in Boston on Monday and travel to Detroit for Tuesday. Detroit lost to exactly that on Sunday: Winnipeg arrived off a one-o’clock matinee in its third game in four nights and won 3-2 anyway.

Ottawa opened with a 3-2 win in Toronto, Stephen Halliday getting the decider and Linus Ullmark making 27 saves. Tim Stützle carries the attack now, with 83 points last season and the captaincy question settled the other way: Brady Tkachuk went to Florida in June and Thomas Chabot took the armband.

Drake Batherson added 71 points last year, Dylan Cozens 59 and Claude Giroux 49 at plus 20. Jake Sanderson is the concern. He played in Toronto but has been day to day with a lower-body problem all week, and Ottawa would not commit him to the Boston game.

Detroit took three of four last season

Four meetings, 13-10 to Detroit, and two of them needed overtime. The February game in Ottawa finished 2-1 and is the only one of the four that stayed under five goals.

Team news

Two unsigned or unavailable defencemen on one side and a captain-less forward group on the other. Availability across the league is tracked on our NHL injury report.

Players to watch

Alex DeBrincat. Forty-one goals last season and the most dangerous shooter on the ice by a clear margin.

Tim Stützle. Eighty-three points, and he has now gone a full off-season as the senior forward rather than the second name.

John Gibson. Two games, two defeats, five goals conceded. Detroit needs him to steal one.

Whoever partners Thomas Chabot. If Sanderson sits, Ottawa’s blue line thins out badly on the second night of a back-to-back.

Score prediction

Ottawa Senators 3-2 Detroit Red Wings. Detroit is winless and missing its captain and its best young defenceman. Ottawa is tired but better, and Ullmark is the best goaltender in the building.

Senators vs Red Wings prediction

Detroit won this matchup three times out of four last season, is at home, and has had two days to stew on a 0-2 start. Those are real arguments.

Set against them: no Larkin, no Kasper, no Edvinsson, and a goaltender who has already conceded five in two. Ottawa has Ullmark, Stützle and a win in Toronto behind it.

The back-to-back is the thing that could flip it. Ottawa played on Monday night and Detroit did not, and Winnipeg aside, tired teams usually lose this one.

Our lean: Ottawa, and the over if the total sits at 5.5 or lower. Three of the four meetings last season cleared five goals. Where both clubs sit against the other 30 is on our NHL power rankings.

19+ (18+ in AB, MB and QC). Odds are approximate at the time of writing and change constantly. Availability varies by province. Please play responsibly. ConnexOntario: 1-866-531-2600 for Ontario residents; see your province’s helpline for resources elsewhere.