John Tavares remembers watching the knife-edged motion as a younger hockey participant dreaming of the large stage.
Auston Matthews has seen the highlights and heard the tales.
The run-through-a-wall ardour. The crackling environment. The stress. The drama.
The Battle of Ontario was amongst hockey’s largest rivalries for a time. The dormant dogfight is ready to reignite anew.
The Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators open their first-round NHL playoff sequence Sunday night time at Scotiabank Area, the primary post-season assembly between the provincial opponents since these heated clashes greater than 20 years in the past.
“Nice battles,” Tavares stated. “Nice groups going at it.”
The veteran centre from simply west of Toronto in Oakville, Ont., was on the sting of his seat supporting the workforce in blue and white because the Leafs beat the Senators 4 occasions within the playoffs between 2000 and 2004, together with two Sport 7 victories.
“The depth was fairly unbelievable,” Tavares added.
Matthews, in the meantime, grew up in Arizona, however is aware of all concerning the historical past.
“The Battle of Ontario speaks for itself,” stated the Leafs famous person captain. “It’s been a very long time. Two very proud cities, proud franchises. We all know what we’re in for.”
Toronto made the playoffs for a ninth straight marketing campaign, however continues to seek for simply its second sequence victory within the NHL’s wage cap period. Ottawa, in the meantime, is again within the post-season for the primary time since 2017 after lastly rising from a protracted and painful rebuild.
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“One thing that I’ve been trying ahead to for a very long time,” stated Senators captain Brady Tkachuk, a playoff freshman. “Solely becoming it’s the Battle of Ontario.”
The Leafs enter the matchup as determined favourites after topping the Atlantic Division with firepower up entrance led by Matthews, Tavares, Mitch Marner and William Nylander.
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A remade defence corps with extra chunk than years previous added Chris Tanev in the summertime and Brandon Carlo on the commerce deadline, whereas goaltender Anthony Stolarz has been lights out with eight straight wins to finish the common season.
“It’s gonna be a massacre,” Stolarz stated of the sequence. “It’s gonna be just a little little bit of a conflict.”
Toronto employed Stanley Cup-winning head coach Craig Berube and his direct, north-south type in hopes of getting a gifted group with a protracted listing of spring flops over its playoff hump.
“It’s about us,” stated Berube, who hoisted hockey’s holy grail with the St. Louis Blues in 2019. “It actually boils right down to our workforce and the dedication and the battle we’ll want.”
The Senators, in the meantime, are a younger group led by Tkachuk and Tim Stutzle up entrance, with veterans sprinkled all through a lineup that grabbed the Jap Convention’s first wild-card spot.
The blue line is paced by budding star Jake Sanderson, however maybe the largest purpose for the workforce’s playoff return is in purpose, the place Linus Ullmark steadied what had been the group’s Achilles heel.
“We’re fired up,” Sanderson stated. “We are able to do some harm.”
Ottawa head coach Travis Inexperienced, who like Berube is in his first season, has introduced accountability and construction to the nation’s capital.
He additionally was a part of the unique Battle of Ontario in his taking part in days, together with the notorious 2003 regular-season brawl on the top of hostilities that noticed Leafs antagonist Darcy Tucker attempt to struggle the Senators bench.
“It’s actual,” Inexperienced stated of the animosity. “There’s been rather a lot historic moments, historic sequence. It was very intense.
“It’s thrilling for the province and thrilling for the gamers.”
Whereas the groups haven’t met within the Stanley Cup event in nearly 7,700 days, there’s nonetheless been latest fireworks. Leafs defenceman Morgan Rielly was suspended 5 video games in February 2024 for a cross-check on Ridly Greig after the Senators centre took a slapshot into an empty web.
Toronto followers have additionally continued the custom of descending on Ottawa’s dwelling rink and portray the Canadian Tire Centre blue every time the groups meet.
Leafs ahead Scott Laughton, very like Tavares, grew up within the Toronto space and remembers the basic clashes.
He even brushed up on yesteryear’s grainy spotlight pack earlier this week.
“My period of hockey,” stated Laughton, one other commerce deadline acquisition. “And I believed it was the perfect period of hockey. It was superb. Actually excited to get going.”
SEASON SERIES
The Senators have been an ideal 3-0-0 in opposition to the Leafs in the course of the common season, together with highway victories of 3-0 and 4-2.
LAST TIME OUT
Toronto and Ottawa final met within the playoffs on April 20, 2004 — Sunday’s sequence opener marks the twenty first anniversary — when Senators netminder Patrick Lalime allowed two mushy targets to Joe Nieuwendyk in Toronto’s 4-1 victory in Sport 7.
BREAKOUT POTENTIAL
Matthew Knies: The 22-year-old winger, who completed the regular-season schedule with 29 targets and 29 assists for 58 factors, is a key piece on Toronto’s prime line with Matthews and Marner.
Jake Sanderson: The 22-year-old blueliner registered 57 factors (11 targets, 46 assists) in 2024-25. Sanderson quarterbacks Ottawa’s energy play, makes a crisp first cross, and might skate his manner out of bother with breathtaking effectivity.
This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed April 18, 2025.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
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