TORONTO -- The Toronto Maple Leafs are set to welcome back a couple of key pieces to their lineup for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference First Round against the Ottawa Senators on Sunday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN2, CBC, SN, TVAS), the first postseason Battle of Ontario in 21 years.
Toronto coach Craig Berube revealed after the morning skate that defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson would be ready to go after missing the final four games of the regular season with an undisclosed injury. The 33-year-old, who had 29 points (four goals, 25 assists) in 77 games this season, skated on the third pair alongside Simon Benoit during practice Saturday.
The Ekman-Larsson news came one day after defenseman Jake McCabe confirmed he also will be ready to play. The 31-year-old, who missed the final seven games of the regular season with an upper-body injury, had 23 points (two goals, 21 assists) in 66 games and will play alongside Chris Tanev, his regular defense partner.
This will be the first Stanley Cup Playoff meeting between the provincial rival Maple Leafs and Senators since 2004. The teams faced each other four times in five seasons in the postseason from 2000-2004, with Toronto winning each of those series.
Senators captain Brady Tkachuk took a stick to the face during practice Saturday and had to leave the ice but returned later in the session and is ready to go for Game 1. This will be Tkachuk’s first playoff game in his seven NHL seasons.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Tkachuk said after the morning skate. “All those times in the driveway with mini-sticks, you think about scoring the game-winner in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. To finally be here is surreal.”
Ottawa is making its first playoff appearance in eight years; the previous time came in 2017 when it went to double overtime against the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final before being eliminated on a Chris Kunitz series-ending goal.
Here is a breakdown of Game 1:
Senators: Ottawa won all three regular-season games -- 3-0 in Toronto on Nov. 12, 2-1 in Ottawa on Jan. 25 and 4-2 in Toronto on March 15. Holding the high-powered Maple Leafs offense led by forwards Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander and John Tavares to three goals in three games shows the type of stingy defense coach Travis Green has instilled into his team and will once against be looking to replicate in this series. The young Senators have just 298 postseason games of experience in their lineup compared to 779 for the Maple Leafs, so they’ll be looking to veteran forwards David Perron (104) and Claude Giroux (98) for guidance.
Maple Leafs: Goaltender Anthony Stolarz will be making his first career start in an NHL playoff game after serving as the backup to Sergei Bobrovsky during the Florida Panthers’ run to the Cup last season. The 31-year-old comes into the series on a roll, with shutouts in three of his past four games. With McCabe and Ekman-Larsson drawing back into the lineup, Toronto can go back to the defensive pairings it regularly used after the NHL Trade Deadline on March 7: Brandon Carlo-Morgan Rielly, McCabe-Tanev and Benoit-Ekman-Larsson. Forward Max Pacioretty, who has been out with an undisclosed injury since Feb. 8, is fit to play but is expected to be a healthy scratch.
Numbers to know: It has been 7,670 days since the Maple Leafs and Senators faced off in a playoff game -- April 20, 2004 when Toronto defeated Ottawa 3-1 in Game 7 of their first-round series.
What to look for: No team in the NHL drew more penalties (349) than the Senators this season. Can the Maple Leafs maintain their composure and stay out of the penalty box, especially with the feisty Tkachuk constantly attempting to get under their collective skin?
