Ottawa Senators @ Toronto Maple Leafs
07:00 PM at Scotiabank Arena
Watch on: SN, CBC, TVAS2

The Leafs last game was away on February 26 against the Florida Panthers, which Toronto lost by a score of 5-1 in regulation. The Leafs have a record of 27-23-9 for a 0.534 Points %.

The Ottawa Senators last played at home on February 26 against the Detroit Red Wings. The Senators lost by a score of 2-1 in overtime, and their current league record is 28-22-8 for a 0.552 Points %.

Them

Movie logic says the Ottawa Senators are just bad, so bad, everyone is bad, and they deserve their spot in the standings because the lesson of the last two seasons is very much that the standings are infallible.

The Ottawa Senators are really very good and they have been all year. They have three very good defenders – three top pairing guys of varying skills. They have three good enough bottom four defenders. They have top level skill at forward at a variety of different things, and they are good enough in other places to augment with players like Claude Giroux and Ridly Greig.

And they've had terrible goaltending almost the entire season.

Two measures: Ottawa is one percentage point behind Carolina and Colorado at five-on-five Expected Goals % and one ahead of Tampa. Ottawa has the highest Goals Against Above Expected in the league. (All from Moneypuck.)

Lines

Last Game (2026-02-26) via Daily Faceoff

Drake Batherson - Tim Stützle - Claude Giroux
Brady Tkachuk - Dylan Cozens - Ridly Greig
Nick Cousins - Shane Pinto - Michael Amadio
Stephen Halliday - Lars Eller - Fabian Zetterlund

Jake Sanderson - Artem Zub
Thomas Chabot - Nick Jensen
Tyler Kleven - Jordan Spence

Linus Ullmark - likely starter
James Reimer

Us

The Leafs have 14 healthy forwards and presumably some number of those they would like to trade. That's the simplest explanation for roster decisions, but it's become a thing that Easton Cowan hasn't played, and lo tonight he is playing.

Lines

From morning skate:

Matthew Knies - Auston Matthews - Max Domi
Matias Maccelli - John Tavares - William Nylander
Easton Cowan - Nicolas Roy - Bobby McMann
Dakota Joshua - Scott Laughton - Nicholas Robertson

Morgan Rielly - Brandon Carlo
Jake McCabe - Troy Stecher
Simon Benoit - Oliver Ekman-Larsson

Joe Woll - starter
Anthony Stolarz

The Game

There will be talk that the Senators are tough and gritty and there will be some metaphors and code words for manhood done correctly and moral judgement. But the reality is that all that storytelling is built on Corsi. The tough guys have a possession game that is effective. The Leafs don't have one of those. That's the key to the game.

This is hockey, though, and two teams with bad goalie performances – because the Leafs goalies have been dreadful, particularly lately – can give you any outcome

On that cheery note, see you tonight for this important game!

Game Coverage