GAMEDAY PREVIEW #76: Ottawa Senators VS Toronto Maple Leafs
For the Final time this season, the Battle of Ontario will go underway tonight.
In a final push to make the playoffs, the Ottawa Senators will face off against the Toronto Maple Leafs at home. The Senators may be injury-depleted but will give it their all tonight. Here is your SenShot GameDay Preview:
Ottawa Senators (37-33-5, 79 pts) VS Toronto Maple Leafs (44-20-10, 98 pts)
When: 7 pm
Where To Watch: CBC, SMO, SNW, SNP
Where To Listen: TSN1200
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Ottawa Senators Notes
Travis Hamonic and Derick Brassard will, unfortunately, be missing time to injury in Ottawa’s last game, against the Philadelphia Flyers. No news on Hamonic’s injury, but Brassard will be missing the rest of the season. Jacob Bernard-Docker was called up from the AHL yesterday. He played with Erik Brannstrom at morning skate.
Julien Gauthier did not appear at morning skate today, he could be injured.
Tyler Kleven made his NHL debut against the Flyers. In his first game, the 2020 2nd-round pick played 17:33 and scored an assist.
Tim Stützle is 6 points away from scoring 90 points this season. Should he meet this mark, he will be the first Ottawa Senator to score at least 90 points in a season since Jason Spezza did it in 2007-08.
Tonight will mark the first time since all the “NoDak Sens” will play on the same NHL roster. The “NoDak Sens” refers to the four players that the Ottawa Senators selected from the North Dakota Fighting Hawks in recent drafts. These four players in question are Shane Pinto (32nd overall in 2019), Jacob Bernard-Docker (26th overall in 2018), Jake Sanderson (5th overall in 2020), and Tyler Kleven (44th overall in 2020).
Scoreboard Watching: The best possible situation for the Sens tonight would be if the Boston Bruins beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Buffalo Sabres, the Columbus Blue Jackets beat the Florida Panthers, and if the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the New York Islanders.
1000 Point Watch: Claude Giroux sits 5 points away from the 1000 career NHL points. He has 6 games left to reach the milestone before the end of this season. So far, he has scored 29 goals and 43 assists for 72 points in 75 games. He is currently third in team points.
Mads Sogaard was in the starter’s end for the morning skate, it is expected that he will start.
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Toronto Maple Leafs Notes
The Toronto Maple Leafs are coming off of a loss against the Florida Panthers on Wednesday. The Leafs are coming into tonight’s game extremely rested.
Auston Matthews leads the team in goals with 37. On the season, he also has 41 assists for 78 points. This is a bit of a drop-off compared to last year’s 60 goals and 46 assists but it has been known for quite some time that he has been playing injured for a big majority of the season.
Timothy Liljegren has been used as the fourth-line winger due to growing injury concerns with Toronto’s forwards, and having a surplus of NHL defensemen.
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Ottawa Senators Lines
Brady Tkachuk – Tim Stutzle – Claude Giroux
Alex DeBrincat – Shane Pinto – Drake Batherson
Mathieu Joseph – Ridly Greig – Dylan Gambrell
Patrick Brown – Mark Kastelic – Austin Watson
Jake Sanderson – Artem Zub
Erik Brannstrom – Jacob Bernard-Docker
Tyler Kleven – Nick Holden
Mads Sogaard
Cam Talbot
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Toronto Maple Leafs Lines
Calle Jarnkrok – Auston Matthews – Mitch Marner
Alex Kerfoot – John Tavares – William Nylander
Michael Bunting – Sam Lafferty -Wayne Simmonds
Zach Aston-Reese – David Kampf – Timothy Liljegren
Jake McCabe – TJ Brodie
Mark Giordano – Justin Holl
Morgan Rielly – Luke Schenn
Matt Murray
Ilya Samsonov