Battle of Ontario is on — again
Senators face Maple Leafs in key game as both teams fight for playoff position
There are so many bad memories of the Battle of Ontario in this city.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have always come out on top.
Remember when the Senators met the Leafs for the first time in the 1999-2000 playoffs and blew a 2-0 lead in Game 6 to lose the game and the series 4-2?
Or how about their next meeting in 2000-’01, when they were blanked twice and scored only three goals in a four-game sweep?
Or their third meeting in 2001-’02, when they blew a 3-2 series lead and were blanked 3-0 in Game 7.
Or, especially, their last meeting in 2003-’04, when owner Eugene Melnyk’s “we’re going to kill them” boast turned into inspiration for the Leafs, who won Game 7 by a score of 4-1?
It’s been a sorry history of bad nightmares from which one stark truth emerges: The Senators have won few games of consequence against the Maple Leafs.
This year alone, the Leafs have won three of four regular-season games, two by shutout, including a 4-0 win here on March 30.
So as they approach a game on Saturday night that’s important for both teams, the Senators get another chance to start levelling the score — or at least send a message with the playoffs looming.
A win for the Leafs would clinch a playoff berth for the first time since 2004, while a win for the Senators would put them one point away from clinching a playoff berth of their own.
The Leafs have already missed two chances to clinch, losing their last two games to the Washington Capitals and the New York Islanders.
So they figure to be an ornery group.
Chris Phillips is one of only three Senators, with Daniel Alfredsson and Chris Neil, still around from the Battle of Ontario glory years.
Phillips doesn’t think about the past much, but he would like to start tilting the results in Ottawa’s direction.
“If you look at the playoffs, yeah, they’ve had our number there, for sure,” he said. “Don’t know when that happens again, when we play them in the playoffs.
“But we’d obviously like to correct those numbers.”
For now, with only five games left, he’d just like to get these two points.
“We’re back to where both teams are competitive, and playing well, but it’s all about us,” he said.
“We want to be playing our best, and working on our game.
“I think it adds to it that we’ve both competitive teams and headed to the playoffs this year. We’re right there.
“So we’re excited, and I think we can feed off it.”
Craig Anderson, who won his third straight on Thursday over the Washington Capitals, will be in goal against the Leafs.
He said it doesn’t matter what jersey the Senators are playing against, the key now is to clinch a playoff berth.
“What’s important is what happens in our room and how we approach the game,” he said. “We have to try to get better and fine-tune our game.”
Like most of his players, coach Paul MacLean wasn’t here during the formative years of the rivalry. He mused on Friday about doing some reading to find out a little bit more of what it was about.
But he said his approach, generally, has never been to look back.
“Our opponents change all the time, and some have more significance than others,” he said. “But I always just think about the next game. Doesn’t matter who it is, for me.” That’s not to say that the history between the teams doesn’t matter, because MacLean believes the 4-0 licking the Leafs laid on the Senators three weeks ago will serve as incentive.
“I think so,” he said. “It’s been a little while, but still, you look back at the last time you played them and what the result was, and, yeah, I think that’s a motivator for us.
“But there’s also the way we played (Thursday against the Capitals): Can we continue that again? Can we do it again?
“That’s always been the challenge game-to-game for our group, to come back and do it again.”