The Ottawa Senators elected to not hold a morning skate and do their medial availability at their hotel and Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe expects their opponents to be focused.
It goes without saying that there's been a lot of drama around the Ottawa Senators lately.
In addition to having dropped five of their last six games in their last couple of weeks, the Sens found out they were losing a first-round pick after their involvement in the canceled trade of forward Evgeni Dadonov from the Vegas Golden Knights to the Anaheim Ducks in 2022. They dismissed GM Pierre Dorion upon learning of the penalty. Brady Tkachuk spoke out about how the fans have reacted to their games and Claude Giroux came out in defense of head coach D.J. Smith saying he wasn't going anywhere.
The Maple Leafs clearly noticed when the Senators elected to hold their media availability at the same time as the Maple Leafs and at a different location, instead of facing the larger contingent waiting for them at Scotiabank Arena.
"In terms of what they've been going through they're not unlike us trying to find a way to put together a good game," Keefe said. "They're schedule couldn't have lined up any better than it has. They've had practice time. They haven't played games. They're hunkered down at the hotel to avoid you guys to stay focused and be ready. So we're expecting their best, no doubt."
It's not the first time the Leafs have taken notice of what the other team is doing. On the opening night of the season, the Montreal Canadiens didn't come to the rink for their morning availability and instead just made head coach Martin St. Louis available a couple of hours before the game. For the opening night of the season, there is a question of whether it's good for the game to limit the amount of availabilities while trying to promote it.
The Leafs are coming off a 6-5 overtime win against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday. As Keefe alluded to, they are still looking to put in a more complete game after sitting with a 6-4-2 record. There's been no shortage of drama with their Leafs from their toughness being questioned following a lack of response to Timothy Liljegren's injury last week against the Boston Bruins to a lot of the newcomers not finding their groove.
The Leafs are in the second game of a four-game home stretch that sees them play four times in six nights before joining the Senators in Stockholm, Sweden, as part of the NHL Global Series.
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