The Ottawa Senators must feel like the fabulous Rocky Balboa in the 1976 classic boxing movie Rocky as they prepare to compete with Toronto’s Maple Leafs in the first round of the NHL playoffs. As Rocky explained this the night before fighting the world heavyweight champion Apollo Creed: “No one has gone from the Creed, if I could get to that distance, you would know, that bell rang, I was still standing, I would stand in my life.
The Senators in this series have no drawbacks, and everything about the Maple Leafs will be lost. This is what makes them as dangerous as Balboa. All the Senators have to do is win a few games in the series, all of which will be in Ottawa. They will be equal to the Atlantic division to the Apollo Creed. Apart from a convincing victory in five games, or a maximum of six games will be a humiliation for the loser Senator.
The last time the Senators met the Maple Leafs in the playoff series was the 21-year-old spring, when they were eliminated in Game 7 of the quarter-finals series. Senator Brady Tkachuk is just four years old, while Tim Stutzle and Jake Sanderson are still in the diapers. Now it is up to them to decide the distance from the leaves. Who knows, one of them might just be a knockout round landing with maple leaves on the mat.
The playoff expectation is heavy on maple leaves
Let’s face it, it’s time for Maple Leaf to win the Stanley Cup. With stars like John Tavares, Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander and Morgan Rielly, it’s hard to imagine a better team than this version of Maple Leafs. If a team with so much talent can’t offer the Stanley Cup in June this year, when will Maple Leaf loyalists see the Cup parade along Yonge Street?
Four cores in Maple Leaf’s lineup – Matthews, Nelander, Mana and Tavarez – saw their salary drop by $46.7 million per quarter. Adding Rielly’s salary to it, the five players swallowed up 60% of the salary cap next season. For Maple Leafs General Manager (GM) Brad Treliving, this is barely precious, keeping the top spot with his team.
Whether they have the ability to re-sign, Tavarez and Mana are about to appear. Although Matthews, Nylander and Rielly are on contract for the next three seasons, they will enter the twilight of their careers when the current contract expires. All of this is to say that the maple leaves were built to win, and whether they admit it or not, it would seriously affect them.
The pressure of buds also comes from history. They have only entered the first round once in the past eight seasons. Some of these first-round disappointments were huge collapses. Which Maple Leaf fans can forgive their losses to the Montreal Canadians in the qualifying round of the 2020-21 season? Hogtown fans never forgot the team’s epic collapse against the Boston Bruins in the 2013 playoffs when they blew up a three-point lead in Game 7 and were eliminated again in the first round.
Since Maple Leaf and Senators last met in a playoff showdown two decades ago, Toronto failed to qualify for the playoffs in 10 seasons and won twice in the first round. Entering a showdown with the Senators, they must make up for multiple sins. For Toronto loyalists, the first-round exit of teams like the Senators this season will condemn their eternal Hellfire.
Senator’s young and dangerous guns
All Senators are expected to end their seven seasons of walking in the wilderness and make the playoffs this season. Senator General Manager Steve Staios can proudly say, “The mission is done.” Entering the playoffs, his team has absolutely no pressure.
Related: Senators will win the series with the Maple Leafs. . .
For the Senators’ core, Tkachuk, Stutzle, Drake Batherson, Sanderson and Thomas Chabot, the playoff leaning against the Maple Leafs will be their first postseason. They will have a slim and hungry look to them, and these players are always dangerous. They have nothing to lose, and any of their success is experience in the playoff series. As Stutzle explained: “For us, the goal is to get in, and I feel like in the playoffs, everything will happen. So, like I said, we have confidence in our group. We have confidence in our group. There are a lot of lessons learned, but we haven’t played in the playoffs yet, and most of us haven’t played, or most of us haven’t played, so we’ll see our goal, we’ll always put in 100% of our efforts, and we have confidence in our group.”
The senator will become more relaxed and not be burdened by the spiritual burden of maple leaves. They are unlikely to cling to the well-known sticks as tightly as maple leaves.
Maple Leaf’s Bet on Senators
Some speculate on what would happen if Maple Leaf was upset with the Senator. However, there will be huge changes. Toronto’s media and fan pressure is second to none in the NHL, which guarantees this.
Some of these changes will certainly include the breakup of the fourth core, changes in the front desk and even the coaching staff. As Earth and Mail Cathal Kelly believes Maple Leaf President Brendan Shanahan will disappear, especially since his contract expires at the end of the season. Not only that, but “if Leaf loses to the Senators, they are also one, maybe two, core people. That’s a reconstruction, whether the Leaf wants to call it or not, it’s a reconstruction” (from the Leaf, will Leaf stick to the same loss plan? Earth and Mail19/04/2025).
Senators lost nothing to the Maple Leafs
Many of Ottawa fans, whether they admit it or not, want their team to lose to the Maple Leafs. The team’s losses, especially if they can beat a few wins, will be seen as an icebreaker outside of a successful season, in which they take the next step towards the Stanley Cup.
For the Maple Leafs, beating the Senators was just meeting expectations. They lose much more losses in the first round of losses than they gain. Diamonds are made under pressure, but so are coal. We will soon see which maple leaves are series developed by the Senators.
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