Toronto Maple Leafs @ Ottawa Senators
Canadian Tire Centre; Kanata, ON
7:00 PM ET; CBC (National)
SBN SNES Supporters: Silver Seven Sens
Preview
The Leafs play the Ottawa Senators on HNIC for what must be like the thirtieth Saturday in a row. Okay, it's only the second; but three of their last six Saturday games have been against this Ottawa team.
Here's what's going to happen: the Leafs are going to overtake Sens fans in their own arena, and they'll get all cute with their inferiority complex. Sens fans will complain that the media is biased for Toronto and against them, when the reality is they should be thankful that our media coverage is making people pay attention to their irrelevant team of "Erik Karlsson and not much else."
Anyway, Ottawa is 4-4-2 in their last ten and most recently got spanked 6-2 by the Florida Panthers. The Leafs are coming off a 4-3 shootout win against the New York Islanders.
The kids are still hot; William Nylander tied the game, while Nikita Soshnikov scored the shootout winner. Ride the wave, Sosh. RIDE THE WAVE!
Probable Leafs Lineup
Rinat Valiev will make his NHL debut tonight on the Leafs blueline, making him the ninth player on the Leafs to play his first-ever game this season. Garret Sparks will start in net as one-half of the "Battle of Illinois...in Ontario!" Milan Michalek will visit Ottawa for the first time since the February 9 trade that brought him to Toronto from Ottawa.
Nikita Soshnikov - Nazem Kadri - Leo Komarov
P.A. Parenteau - William Nylander - Zach Hyman
Colin Greening - Brooks Laich - Peter Holland
Milan Michalek - Ben Smith - Michael Grabner
Morgan Rielly - Martin Marincin
Jake Gardiner - Connor Carrick
Rinat Valiev - Frank Corrado
Garret Sparks
Probable Ottawa Lineup
Per Gord Wilson of TSN 1200 Ottawa, these were the lines at Sens morning skate. A familiar face to Leaf fans will be manning the Sens blueline once again. A certain one-time first pairing defenseman in Toronto...
...that's right! Mike Kostka will play for the Sens tonight!
Zack Smith - Pierre-Gabriel Pageau - Mark Stone
Mike Hoffman - Mika Zibanejad - Alex Chiasson
Ryan Dzingel - Scott Gomez - Bobby Ryan
Chris Paul - Curtis Lazar - Chris Neil
Mike Kostka - Chris Wideman
Craig Anderson
Prediction
Sosh rides the wave, Hyman bursts through once again, but the Leafs lose. Bobby Ryan has a terrible game because he's sad the Trump rally last night got shut down.
