Maple Leafs at Senators
This season's first Battle of Ontario has some added juice with the high-powered Toronto Maple Leafs set to bring the league's top-ranked offense into Saturday night's clash against the host Ottawa Senators. The Maple Leafs, led by 2016 No. 1 overall draft pick Auston Matthews, are averaging nearly five goals per game during their 6-1-0 start.
Toronto extended its winning streak to three games by taking a back-to-back against Washington and Detroit, scoring four goals on its first five shots in Wednesday's 6-3 victory over the Red Wings. “It’s great to see. (But) it’s still October," Maple Leafs center Nazem Kadri told reporters. "We can’t get too ahead of ourselves here. There are still a lot of good teams we have to play and it’s not going to be this loose for long.” The Senators are allowing the third-fewest goals in the league (2.29 per game) entering Friday and have lost just once in regulation, but they have yet to win at home in four games (0-1-3). Ottawa has owned the series against its provincial rival over the past two seasons, winning seven of the eight matchups.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, CBC, TVA, CITY
ABOUT THE MAPLE LEAFS (6-1-0): One of the hot topics in Toronto on Friday was a prominent betting website listing the Maple Leafs as favorites to win the Stanley Cup. “All that stuff is fluff,” Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock told reporters. “It’s hard to win the Cup. It’s darn near impossible. Let’s not worry about that -let’s try to get in the playoffs. Let’s do that by winning the game in Ottawa." Matthews, who leads the Maple Leafs with six goals and 10 points, scored four times and added three assists in four games versus Ottawa last season.
ABOUT THE SENATORS (3-1-3): The inability to win at home is baffling for Ottawa, which carried a two-goal lead into the third period against New Jersey on Thursday - only to wind up losing in overtime. "We've got to work on protecting leads," said center Kyle Turris, who leads the team with eight points. "We don't want to lose one-goal leads, never mind two-goal leads." Special teams continue to be productive for the Senators, who have snuffed out 20 of 21 penalties overall and are 7-for-21 on the power play in the past four games.
OVERTIME
1. Senators G Craig Anderson won both starts versus Toronto last season despite allowing seven goals.
2. Maple Leafs G Frederik Andersen has yielded five goals in winning his three road starts.
3. Senators F Zack Smith is expected to miss a week and D Mark Borowiecki will sit out his second straight game, both with upper-body injuries.