The Ottawa Senators will be looking to maintain some momentum from the bottom of the North Division and earn their first three-game winning streak of the season Wednesday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Maple Leafs, well, they’ll be looking quell some “here-we-go-again” concerns after they blew a 5-1 lead to the Senators on Monday night.
“They’re probably going to come out just as hard as they did last game,” Senators coach D.J. Smith said on Sportsnet 590 the FAN’s Good Show. “They came out, took it to us in the first period and we were hanging on. We’ve gotta be ready for that push. We’ve gotta be more competitive from the get-go. If we can get out of that first six minutes before the TV timeout we’re in better shape.”
[radioclip id=5066835]For most of the first game of this week’s Battle of Ontario series, the Maple Leafs looked like the division’s top team and the Sens looked like a team well in their rear-view mirror. After two periods, Toronto had a 10-4 high-danger shot advantage at 5-on-5 and a 21-17 advantage overall. It was 5-2 after 40 minutes, but it was that second Senators goal, scored short-handed with nine seconds left in the frame, that opened up the door for a miraculous come back.
The Sens scored three in the third and won the game in OT, a result that left Leafs Nation in a bit of a panic, wondering if the team was showing old characteristics. Did they play down to their competition and let the foot off the gas to blow the game? How much of the blame should fall to Frederik Andersen? Even John Tavares and William Nylander, in the midst of scoring slumps, have been criticized to some level.
But, by the underlying numbers at least, this wasn’t an “18-wheeler going off a cliff” moment for Toronto. As Ottawa’s comeback happened in the third, the Leafs still held shot and high-danger advantages in the final frame and unfortunate events contributed to the collapse, such as Artem Zub being sprung on a breakaway out of the penalty box, or Evgenii Dadonov batting the tying goal out of the air. Connor Brown’s goal was scored right after a Leafs penalty expired.
One loss like this may not be enough to panic on, but following it up with another loss to the Sens? Then perhaps we’re on to something.
We learned a lot about the fight the Sens have in them Monday, and we could learn something about the Leafs on Wednesday based on how they respond.
[radioclip id=5067021]None of this is meant to take away from what an achievement it was for the Sens to win that game. It showed character and a mental fortitude that could be hard for a team to always have if they’re out of the playoff race so early.
But it’s this type of competition and those type of wins that Ottawa is after this season. Smith believes that, even if they do finish seventh this season, the team’s rebuild will be in a better place when things return to normal because of what they’re facing in 2021.
“I knew going into this year that these six teams were all playoff teams, all expected to compete for the Stanley Cup and we’re in a different situation with our group where we’re developing younger players,” Smith said. “I knew this would be highly, highly competitive. And I said from the get-go we’ll be better for it. There are stretches where there’s tough times and we’ve gone through that and I’m sure there will be more bumps.
“But in saying that this group’s getting way better and we’ll be better for it the following year because when you go back to playing teams that missed the playoffs with you and were lottery teams, they’re in similar situations as us and in my opinion we’ll be way ahead of them because we went through this division.”
While playoffs are not even really a goal this season — Ottawa is nine points out of fourth at the moment — the real goal for the Sens is to build a culture of expectation to compete every night. They might not win most of their games, but they can find good habits, make small strides and, like the Leafs, perhaps, break out of their rebuild sooner than later once the schedule and divisions return to normal.
“We’ve got young guys trying to prove they belong in the league, older guys trying to stay in the league, so there’s a certain hunger here that people want to be part of the future. I think that keeps us fresh.”
The Senators and Leafs meet again Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. ET and you can watch it on Sportsnet.
