Toronto Maple Leafs center Connor Dewar (24) battles for the puck with Ottawa Senators defenseman Nick Jensen (3) in front of goaltender Linus Ullmark (35) during the first period at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on Nov. 12.Nick Turchiaro/Reuters
It’s been a donkey’s age since the Battle of Ontario moved anyone in any part of this province. But going into Tuesday night in Toronto, there was some hope.
The last time the Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators met, there had been a national incident. Near the end of that game, Toronto’s Morgan Rielly tried decapitating Ottawa forward Ridly Greig for slapping the puck into an empty net. Time ran out before Ottawa could respond properly.
That was February – a whole different world – back when people believed a better, crueller version of the Leafs was getting ready to appear in the playoffs. They didn’t. There haven’t been many justifiable on-ice homicides since.
For months, people (i.e. Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment’s group sales division) waited on the revenge tour. The Leafs players were peppered with prompts to help sell tickets. For instance, someone asked Leafs defenceman Jake McCabe if Rielly’s act of violence could help juice the rivalry.
“I’m sure it only heightens it,” McCabe said. “But it’s certainly not a talking point in our dressing room.”
Oh.
Not in the locker room and, as it turned out, not on the ice either. The Leafs came out so flat on Tuesday they were functionally inverted.
Toronto gave up a goal in the first minute. It spent the rest of the period trying to remind itself which direction the Ottawa net was in.
The Leafs only had any looks because Ottawa’s Nick Cousins was penalized twice for tripping Conor Timmins. Two tripping penalties is one too many. Two on Timmins should be professionally disqualifying.
Two more Ottawa goals to start the second and Craig Berube took his hands out of his pockets and put them on his hips. Few men say more talking than the Leafs coach can say with hand placement.
After going down by three, the Leafs’ player the eye drifted to most often was Ryan Reaves. In lieu of points, were the Leafs going to send a message (and to whom, one wonders)? Unsurprisingly, no Senator was interested in giving the Leafs a reason to feel positive about their evening. Reaves was a shark circling an empty swimming pool. As it ended, the few who remained in the building rained down boos.
There were only two positives for Toronto. Auston Matthews is still missing with an undisclosed upper-body injury, so he is unsullied by Tuesday’s performance. And were it not for the contortions of Leafs goalie Anthony Stolarz, the game would’ve ended in a football score rather than 3-0.
Stolarz has already played more games this year than in four of his professional seasons, and is working at a team MVP level. Were it not for him, this young campaign might already be a bit of a long march to nowhere.
It’s not clear what everybody else’s excuse is. Maybe they’ve spent so much time concentrating on improving the limp power play (0-for-3 on Tuesday) that they forgot what they know about every other part of hockey.
The remainder of November could become a bit of a ring of fire for the Leafs. There are no gimmes coming up, including Washington in D.C., Edmonton and Vegas at home, and then a quick rip through Florida against the Panthers and Lightning. Things that looked okay while Toronto played .500 hockey could look otherwise soon.
On a standings page, Ottawa and Toronto are more similar now than they have been in a while. But on Tuesday, only one of the teams looked like it cared. That may be the difference between an up-and-comer and someone who’s already supposed to be there.
But things are only the same until they aren’t. It would take only a small change for these two clubs to flip their spots in the rankings.
The Battle of Ontario may not get the players charged up like it used to. But a few more nights like Tuesday’s, and Leafs fans will be the ones out for blood.
