This hasn't been a good week for the Ottawa Senators. First, Erik Karlsson was injured in a freak accident with Matt Cooke that could have been easily prevented with a simple piece of equipment. Then their GM embarrassed himselfby accusing Matt Cooke of deliberately cutting Karlsson's Achilles in the finest tradition of Damien Cox: "Oh well, with Matt Cooke you gotta ask the question..." Then, Eugene Melnyk doubled down on the crazy while also ignoring the history of his fan favourite Chris Neil. Of course, maybe he knows that he's wrong and will talk it back later once the league fines him.
The bottom line is that the Senators are reeling and the Leafs need to take advantage. Right now, both teams are tied in the standings with the Leafs holding the tie break based on regulation and overtime wins. The five games against Ottawa will play a huge role in deciding which of these two teams will make the playoffs (if either of them do) and the Leafs have three at home which is a best case scenario. Senators fans aren't too bullish about their chances and to be frank, I'm not sold on the Leafs as they stand right now. The advantage the Leafs have is obviously that they'll get Joffrey Lupul back soon as well as James Reimer while Karlsson is out for the year and Spezza is as close to that as it comes.
See the Senators' preview here. The Ottawa Citizen runs a prediction panel before every game and the predictions run from hoping Craig Anderson can steal the game and assuming that an impending loss will be one more insult piled on in a brutal week.
Things To Keep An Eye On
- Who do the Senators match against the Kessel line? Last year he had 11 points in 6 games against them.
- Who do the Leafs match the Grabovski line against? The Alfredsson line I guess?
- Will Chris Neil fight Mike Brown or one of the blue bombers? Or more likely does he try to fight Grabovski again?
- Can the Leafs score on Anderson? Other than the first game of the year, the Leafs struggled to score on him in the other four games.
Expected Lineups and Starters
Toronto Maple Leafs
James van Riemsdyk - Tyler Bozak - Phil Kessel
Jay McClement - Mikhail Grabovski - Nikolai Kulemin
Clarke MacArthur - Nazem Kadri - Leo Komarov
Colton Orr - David Steckel - Mike Brown
Dion Phaneuf - Korbinian Holzer
John-Michael Liles - Mike Kostka
Ben Scrivens (starter)
Ottawa Senators
Erik Condra - Kyle Turris - Jakob Silfverberg
Mika Zibanejad - Stephane Da Costa - Daniel Alfredsson
Kaspars Daugavins - Zack Smith - Chris Neil
Dave Dziurzynski - Derek Grant - JimO'Brien
Patrick Wiercioch - Chris Phillips
Craig Anderson (starter)