Game Day: Leafs vs. Senators

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The Maple Leafs (5-4-1) take on the Ottawa Senators tonight (4-6-1) in this season’s second chapter of the Battle of Ontario. Phil Kessel and the Leafs dominated the Senators en route to winning 5-1 in the first meeting of the season between these two teams on October 9th. Toronto has lost two straight games after starting the season with a 4-0-0 record. Ottawa has been inconsistent thus far, but won back-to-back games over the Phoenix Coyotes and Florida Panthers last week.

The Leafs have gone 1-4-1 in their past six games and have only 7 goals in the process. In an attempt to spread out the offense, head coach Ron Wilson has promoted Luca Caputi to the first line alongside Tyler Bozak and Phil Kessel. Caputi has played an average of 12:46 minutes per game in 2 appearances with the Leafs this season, while recording 5 shots on net. He will be expected to create space for Phil Kessel and provide a big-body presence in front of the net.
Wilson is expected to ice the same second line consisting of Mikhail Grabovski between Nikolai Kulemin and Clarke MacArthur. The line has combined for 18 points in 10 games, but has struggled to find balanced scoring. MacArthur is second on the Leafs with 6 goals, Nikolai Kulemin has one and Grabovski remains scoreless.

Come tomorrow night, the Leafs third line will be the most intriguing. Tim Brent will centre Mike Brown and Kris Versteeg. Brent and Brown have fulfilled their respective roles over the first month of the season, but Versteeg hasn’t lived up to his billing, with only 2 points in 9 games. Playing on the third line is nothing new for him, as he played parts of the season in the bottom six with the Chicago Blackhawks last year. He should, however, be playing a prominent offensive role on a thin group of forwards in Toronto.

Phil Kessel will be counted on heavily tomorrow night and expected to score against the Senators, who he has posted goals in all six games versus the Senators last season. He is currently tied with Alex Ovechkin, Daniel Sedin and Marian Hossa for fourth overall in the NHL with 7 goals.

On the other end, the Senators are once again being anchored by captain Daniel Alfredsson, who has 12 points in 11 games this season. Sergei Gonchar is second on the team in points with 6 assists. Ottawa has had inconsistent secondary scoring, with only 3 goals from Alexei Kovalev, 1 goal from Jason Spezza and none thus far from Nick Foligno.

Brian Elliott’s shaky play in the early goings of the season are in part due to the loss of Anton Volchenkov, but also the overall inconsistent play of the Senators defense. His 3.39 goals-against-average and 0.890 SV% ranks 35th and 34th in the league. The Senators defense has a combined -18 over the first 11 games of the season.

Here are tonight's lineups for both teams:

Toronto Maple Leafs Lines

Forwards
Luca Caputi – Tyler Bozak – Phil Kessel
Nikolai Kulemin – Mikhail Grabovski – Clarke MacArthur
Mike Brown – Tim Brent – Kris Versteeg
Fredrik Sjostrom – Christian Hanson – Colton Orr
Ex. John Mitchell

Defense
Francois Beauchemin – Dion Phaneuf
Tomas Kaberle – Luke Schenn
Carl Gunnarsson – Mike Komisarek
Ex. Brett Lebda

Goalies

Jean-Sebastien Giguere

Jonas Gustavsson

Ottawa Senators Lines

Forwards
Peter Regin – Jason Spezza – Alexei Kovalev
Nick Foligno – Mike Fisher – Daniel Alfredsson
Jarkko Ruutu – Chris Kelly – Chris Neil
Zack Smith – Jesse Winchester – Ryan Shannon

Defense

Chris Campoli - Sergei Gonchar

Chris Phillips - Erik Karlsson

David Hale - Matt Carkner

Goalies
Brian Elliott
Pascal Leclaire

The game gets underway at 7:00 pm on Rogers Sportsnet and can be heard on AM 640 in Toronto.