The Battle of Ontario hasn’t had a ton of juice since the days of perennial playoff matchups and Darcy Tucker taking on the Senators’ bench. The Leafs have been near the top of the Atlantic Division for the last several years, while the Senators have been stuck in a perpetual rebuild, but Ottawa has taken a step this season, potentially reigniting their fierce rivalry with their provincial counterpart.
While the Leafs are locked in a battle for top spot in the Atlantic, the Senators are squarely in the mix for a Wild Card spot, and they chalked up two more valuable points on Saturday night, taking down the Leafs by a score of 2-1 in a tight-checking, sometimes chippy affair.
With the Leafs up by a goal early in the first period, thanks to Mitch Marner and Bobby McMann, things started to get chippy. Nick Cousins, who has delivered his share of questionable hits during his career, took an awkward run at Jacob Quillan, who was making his Leafs debut. Cousins and Quillan appeared to go knee on knee, with both players slow to get up, but it was Cousins who would be forced to leave the game.
Tensions continued to build, with Senators captain Brady Tkachuk in the middle of most of it, as he often is. He managed to draw the ire of Max Domi a couple of times, with both players taking coincidental minors as the result of one post-whistle scrum. Ryan Reaves took his shot at Tkachuk later in the opening period, mixing it up at the bench until a linesman intervened.
Heading into the first intermission tied at 0, both teams seemed to take a breath with valuable points on the line, and the result was a mostly uneventful second period. The Leafs started to control play, but as they have done at times this season, they struggled to convert that possession into quality scoring chances.
The Leafs came out with an even stronger push in the third period, and it looked like their forecheck and cycle game was starting to wear down the Senators, but they still struggled to get the puck into the middle of the offensive zone to generate dangerous looks. When you’re unable to execute offensively, it only takes one mistake or bad bounce to put you behind the eight ball, and that was what happened to the Leafs on Saturday night.
Joseph Woll made a number of quality stops throughout the game, but he didn’t stand much of a chance on a bouncing puck from behind the net that was directed over his head and just barely across the line off Shane Pinto’s knee. The Leafs continued to push and finally started to create some havoc around the opposing net in the dying minutes, but it was too little, too late.
There was plenty for Craig Berube to like about the way his team defended in this game and the way the Leafs’ forecheck started to create pressure as the game wore on, but ultimately, it was an inability to get the puck inside in the offensive zone that cost them. That has been an ongoing concern for this team over the years, and after a game that had a bit of a playoff feel with a provincial rival who could be a potential first-round opponent, it will be something that Berube and the Leafs will have to clean up.
Saturday night wasn’t quite a throwback to the days of Daniel Alfredsson and Mats Sundin, but with the Senators finally on the rise and aiming for a playoff berth, it did feel like this game meant a little bit more than a lot of recent matchups between the Toronto and Ottawa. If the Sens are able to stake their claim to a Wild Card spot at season’s end, and the Leafs don’t get knocked off the top of the Atlantic Division mountain, we just might get that throwback in the spring.
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