Puck Drop: 7:00 p.m. EST | Arena: Air Canada Centre | TV: CBC | Radio: SN 590
Game Day Quotes
Ottawa Senators head coach Guy Boucher on why his team has had a lot of success against the Maple Leafs in the past couple of seasons:
We just do our thing, to be honest with you. Whether it’s against them or against other teams that we’ve won against – Tampa, those teams – I think you get up for those games. We’ve had moments also against the Leafs where we didn’t have injuries like a lot of other teams. Again tonight we might be a little lucky to get guys back. Obviously, when we have all of our players – which I think happened once this year – it’s a different look and it’s more than welcome. Really, I just think it’s a game where it’s an exciting game for fans and an exciting game for the players, too. Everybody is up for it.
Boucher on Colin White and Thomas Chabot taking on bigger roles for the team:
Right now, we’ve got White growing very fast and Chabot growing very fast – faster than some other guys we had up. But I guess that’s why they’re high-end picks. They’re players who care about the details, guys who want to learn big time. They’re early at the rink. They work hard and they stay long after practice. They want to become pros as fast as they can, and it’s showing in their game. Hey, it’s more than welcome. The more those young guys are ready, the better it is for us, and the more excited I am, of course. In that respect, it has been a little easy to make decisions.
Mike Babcock on the improvement in organizational depth over his tenure:
Well, obviously, we’re getting better there. It wasn’t very pretty at the start, but we’ve added and added and guys have gotten better and better. We still think, down there, Holl’s got a chance. We think Rosen has a chance. Obviously, [Borgman] got hurt last night, but he’s got a real chance. Lilypad there, too — if he puts his time in, he’ll be a real player, too. So the more [good defencemen] you have, obviously, the less time you spend in your own zone and the more you win.
Babcock on moving Connor Carrick back in with Travis Dermott on the third pairing:
Well, I just like that [Carrick] can move the puck. He scored the game winner against Ottawa last time. We’ve used Polie the last few games. We thought Polie played good, too. There’s no reason for Polie to come out. We’re just doing this back and forth and keeping everyone alive the best we possibly can.
Babcock on the pressure for original six teams to stray away from rebuilds:
With our situation here, it was very apparent that we were a long way away from being any good and that we needed lots of changes. But in the end, you’ve still got to do the job. You’ve got to do the job everyday. You know, it’s not the court of popular opinion. You hire some people and they make decisions. If you make enough good decisions over a long enough period of time, you end up with a good hockey club.
Well, we got Auston. But what if we don’t? I remember when we got to three [in the lottery], I was jumping up in the living room. When we got to one — tears. People don’t understand — you need real players. You can do everything you want and put them in the right spots, but you need real players. You need lots of real players if you’re going to be good in the end. If you want to put your name on the silver thing, you need a real group of players.
Boucher on Babcock’s comment about needing “real players” out of the draft:
The horses are the ones who win the race. They are the ones who pay the price on the ice and they deserve all the credit for doing so. We’re looking at these young guys and then there are others who are coming soon enough that are really good and that is exciting for us. We have to have that. It’s just the reality of today’s hockey. If you look at how Pittsburgh was built, Chicago was built, how Washington was built, how Toronto now went from a last-placed team a little while ago to the next year – the first picks come in, and then Nylander is ready and Marner is ready to come in, and you just get a goalie and all of a sudden they’re a top-end team. It doesn’t take much to change things. Obviously, those young guys coming in ready changes your organization, for sure.
Guys like Chabot and White for us coming in like that – it’s huge for us. We’ve got some other guys that are close and are coming and will be pushing next year. It definitely could change the organization quick enough. We’re aware of that. That’s why right now we are making sure right now to groom those guys because we know that’s the future and sometimes the future is really quick.
Boucher on the three-year contract extension for Senators GM Pierre Dorion announced on Friday:
I’ve liked [our relationship] since day one, to be honest with you. That’s the reason why I’m here. We clicked right from the beginning. We’ve worked very close since the beginning. I am more than happy for him because he absolutely deserves it. He’s a great person – not just a good hockey man, but a great person. It’s a joy to work with him. When you’ve got people like that around you, you wish him the best. I think it’s the best thing for the organization to move forward. To show stability is something that is absolutely needed. I think the owner has done a terrific job of showing that by signing Pierre again. It’s good to know now that it is going to be his way moving forward. The players know that, I know that, the staff knows that, and the fans know that. That stability is very welcome.
Matchup Stats
| TOR | OTT | |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 32-19-5 | 19-25-9 |
| GF/g | 3.16 (6th) | 2.62 (25th) |
| GA/g | 2.77 (11th) | 3.34 (29th) |
| PP% | 20.6% (16th) | 16.5% (27th) |
| PK% | 82.6% (7th) | 75% (28th) |
| Shots/g | 31.7 (15th) | 30.2 (25th) |
| Shots Against/g | 33.9 (28th) | 33.3 (26th) |
| 5v5 CF% | 49.4% (19th) | 46.7% (29th) |
| 5v5 SV% | .931 (6th) | .915 (27th) |
| 5v5 SH% | 9.0% (4th) | 7.7% (16th) |
Toronto Maple Leafs Projected Lineup
*We have added goal, assist, and point totals for each player below the lines. Total goals per line are indicated, too, as well as save percentage for goalies.
Forwards
Hyman – Matthews – Nylander
(55-11-19-30) – (46-25-18-43) – (54-12-29-41) Total: 48
Marleau – Kadri – Marner
(55-17-9-26) – (53-17-16-33) – (55-10-27-37) Total: 44
Van Riemsdyk – Bozak – Brown
(54-21-12-33) – (53-8-19-27) – (55-12-9-21) Total: 41
Komarov – Moore – Kapanen
(54-5-10-15) – (37-4-6-10) – (12-4-1-5) Total: 13
Defencemen
Rielly – Hainsey
(49-5-27-32) – (53-3-16-19) Total: 8
Gardiner – Zaitsev
(55-3-30-33) – (38-4-6-10) Total: 7
Dermott – Carrick
(12-1-4-5) – (34-3-4-7) Total: 4
Goaltenders
Andersen (.922 sv%)
McElhinney (.932 sv%)
Scratched: Martin, Leivo, Polak
Ottawa Senators Projected Lineup
Forwards
Hoffman – Duchene – White
(53-15-22-37) – (39-9-12-21) – (12-1-1-2) Total: 25
Dzingel – Brassard – Stone
(53-14-11-25) – (31-13-16-29) – (44-18-26-44) Total: 45
Smith – Pageau – Pyatt
(39-4-10-14) – (49-7-10-17) – (53-6-10-16) Total: 17
Paajarvi – Didomenico – Claesson
(6-1-0-1) – (22-6-4-10) – (40-1-2-3) Total: 8
Defencemen
Oduya – Karlsson
(44-2-4-6) – (53-15-22-37) Total: 17
Phaneuf – Ceci
(51-3-12-15) – (53-5-8-13) Total: 8
Borowiecki – Chabot
(23-2-2-4) – (34-4-8-12) Total: 6
Goaltenders
Anderson (.904 sv%)
Condon (.902 sv%)
Injured: Macarthur, Wideman, Chlapik, Dumont, Thompson, Ryan
