It’s often referred to as the Centre of the Hockey Universe.
And why not? Most of hockey’s major media outlets are there. The Hockey Hall of Fame is there. The famed Maple Leaf Gardens/Loblaws is there. And most importantly, the Toronto Maple Leafs are there.
Surely you’ve heard of them.
Winners of 13 Stanley Cups. All of them in black and white. Two consecutive playoff appearances and an incredible five victories in those two rounds. And that’s not all. They also made the playoffs in the 2012-2013 season too. And if not for those five unfortunate minutes against the Boston Bruins, they may have even won a playoff round. Three times they’ve made the playoffs in the last ten years. That’s damn near half of the years.
And this year, the stars finally seem to be aligning for the Toronto Maple Leafs. With Jake Muzzin in tow, they look like a lock for home ice in round one. Which likely means a first round match up with the…oh…the Boston Bruins. Well, there’s always next year. Well, not for Mitch Marner but for the rest of them anyway.
The Ottawa Senators visit the Maple Leafs tonight in Toronto.
With 30 games left, the Senators don’t have a lot left to play for. Operation Don’t Finish Last has hit a bit of a snag recently as Ottawa finds themselves in…well in last. Four points back of the 30th place Devils.
They’ve dropped four straight and with rumours swirling around their best players, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for fans (and for players apparently), to get up for these games.
With that said, a win over the Maple Leafs is always nice.
Will be interesting to see how Guy Boucher lines ’em up tonight. This morning, the team announced they have recalled Jack Rodewald and OLYMPIAN Cody Goloubef from Belleville. Mikkel Boedker and Christian Jaros are both dealing with injuries and won’t play in this one.
Game Day skate goes at 11:30 AM so we’ll find out the line up then. A best guess for now.
Dzingel-Duchene-Ryan
Tkachuk-White-Stone
Smith-Pageau-Paajarvi
Rodewald-Tierney-Balcers
Chabot-DeMelo
Lajoie-Ceci
Borowiecki-Harpur
Craig Anderson starts for Ottawa. Puck drop is scheduled for just after 7:00 PM.
Sportsnet has the broadcast tonight which means Jim Hughson breaking down his favourite things about Auston Matthews, Craig Simpson analyzing Jim Hughson’s favourite things about Auston Matthews and Nick Kypreos rambling incoherently. Settle in, folks!
And now…the Head2Head table brought to you by the good folks at Gary’s European Sausage and Deli in Kamloops, British Columbia.
| HEAD2HEAD |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 19-28-5 (43 pts) | 32-17-3 (67 pts) |
| Goals For | 3.06 (12th) | 3.56 (4th) |
| Goals Against | 3.73 (31st) | 2.81 (8th) |
| Power Play | 21.1% (T-14th) | 21.2 (T-12th) |
| Penalty Kill | 76.4% (27th) | 80.5% (14th) |
| Shots For | 29.4 24th) | 31.5 (16th) |
| Shots Against | 36.4 (31st) | 32.4 (23rd) |
| Leading Scorers | Stone- 51 pts Duchene- 48 pts Chabot- 39 pts |
Marner- 63 pts Tavares- 56 pts Rielly- 52 pts |
| Starting Goalie | Craig Anderson 14-16-3 3.51 GAA, .906 sv% |
Frederik Andersen 23-11-2 2.52 GAA, .923 sv% |
-If you’re having a hard time keeping up with the latest on Mark Stone and Matt Duchene right now, you’re not alone. With the trade deadline quickly approaching, the insiders are all over this story with bits of information leaking out along the way. Insider Trading talked about both guys last night, suggesting that a big part of the conversation with Matt Duchene right now revolves around selling him on the direction of the team. Convincing him that they can be in a position to return to the playoffs in the not too distant future. And in this case, vague projections and “we’re a team” isn’t going to cut it. For both Stone and Duchene, this is a career-defining decision and while it seems like both guys have legitimate interesting in staying, they want to know exactly what they would be signing up for. Word is Dorion is pushing hard to have both players to make a concrete decision this week.
