With the trade deadline looming, the Senators and Leafs are not where they expected to be in the standings.
Back in April, when the Ottawa Senators met the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in 21 years, it looked like the Battle of Ontario was back.
Their playoff meeting in 2004 had been the last time the two provincial rivals faced off in the post-season. But for years afterward, it always seemed like at least one of the two Ontario teams simply wasn’t very good.
After 2004, the Senators kept rolling, making the Cup Final in 2007. But the Leafs went on to miss the playoffs for the next seven seasons and in all, went 17 years without a single playoff series victory. As for the Senators? They eventually went cold, too. Last spring marked the end of a seven-year playoff drought, the third longest in the NHL at the time.
So it was good to see both Ontario teams moving in a positive direction at the same time. Toronto won the 2005 first-round series in six games, but it seemed to set the table for more great battles to come.
Now, it's 10 months later.
As they meet in Toronto on Saturday night for the second of their four meetings this season, it’s no surprise the two Ontario teams are neck and neck in the Eastern standings. What is a surprise, though, is that both teams sit seven and eight points out of the final wild-card spot in the conference.
The Senators have 64 points, good for 11th place in the East. The Leafs have 63, which has them tied for 12th.
Ottawa’s record is actually better than it was at the 58-game mark last year, when they had 62 points. The difference is that non-playoff teams like the Detroit Red Wings, Buffalo Sabres and Boston Bruins have all taken big steps forward and currently occupy playoff spots in the East.
It’s Toronto that's taken the biggest spill. On February 28 last year, the Leafs led the Atlantic Division with 76 points, which is 13 points ahead of their current pace. That information probably has Vegas forward Mitch Marner sleeping like a baby these days.
The season isn’t over for either Ontario team. Both can perhaps draw inspiration from Buffalo’s ability to flip the script so quickly. On December 8, the Sabres were dead last in the East. Since then, they’ve gone 20-5-6 and now sit second in the Atlantic Division. It’s a shocking turnaround for any team, especially one that is currently riding the longest playoff drought in NHL history at 14 years.
That's how quickly things can change in the NHL.
The question now for Ottawa and Toronto, at a time when many expected both clubs to be well above the playoff cut line, is whether they should be buyers or sellers with the NHL trade deadline just a week away.
Both fan bases have to be worried (or convinced) by now that the construction of their respective rosters may be flawed, and both would love to imagine that it can all be remedied with a few moves at the deadline.
As always, that is far easier said than done, particularly in a league right now filled with parity. A lot of teams still believe they’re in the playoff race. As a result, true sellers are few and far between, and the price tags on available players will be steep.
Things are tight, the clock is ticking, and the margin for error is so small, that a loss on Saturday night could actually alter the losing team’s deadline plans in the coming days. So it’s an important week for both Ontario teams. Unfortunately, it's not because either one is on the doorstep of a playoff spot. Until further notice, that notion remains a long shot.
But as they say, the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step, and it's always nice to lay a beating on your provincial rival on a Saturday night.
Steve Warne
The Hockey News
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