2025 Playoffs Round 1, Game 1 Hub: Ottawa Senators @ Toronto Maple Leafs

After eight long seasons, it's time to rekindle the fires of playoff spirit and reignite a rivalry from two decades ago.

Lineups:

Here's how the Sens lined up, with Brady Tkachuk in his usual spot alongside familiar linemates and Fabian Zetterlund starting on the fourth line. I expect Zetterlund and Perron to move up and down throughout the course of the game, like how Travis Green deployed those players against Carolina. As of right now, Tyler Kleven continues to line up with Nikolas Matinpalo.

Meanwhile, here's how the Leafs have been lining up at practice. Jake McCabe and Oliver Ekman-Larsson missed the end of the regular season with upper body injuries, but both will draw back into the lineup tonight. Anthony Stolarz will start in goal.

Game notes:

• If you haven't read Trevor's series preview, give that a read. Elsewhere around Sensland, you can read Luke's preview for Welcome to Your Karlsson Years, Alex Adams's preview for Sportsnet , and this oral retelling of previous Sens-Leafs showdowns by Julian McKenzie for The Athletic ($). For the audiophiles in the room, our very own Elite Sens Brain teamed up with the Zubcast for a playoff preview episode and I've been enjoying the Voicemails series from the WTYKY crew.
• In every Battle of Ontario, goaltending has been a story one way or another, and boy are there storylines aplenty in this series. With a stick-tap to my best friend, here are Anthony Stolarz's save-percentage numbers by days of rest: 0.912% with one day of rest, 0.925% with two days of rest, and 0.936% with three days of rest. Linus Ullmark's numbers? 0.916% with one day of rest, 0.919% with two days of rest, and 0.919% with three days of rest. Remarkably consistent. The only time there will be more than one day of rest in this series is between games four and five, so Ullmark vs Stolarz is a more even matchup than this season's numbers suggest – and fitting given Ullmark's pedigree.
• FWIW, Joseph Woll looks like a league-average backup with one day of rest (0.900%) and even worse with two days of rest (0.894%), but has thrived in a platoon – putting up a 0.923% with three days of rest. If the Leafs were playing the numbers, they could platoon their goaltenders for the first four games and go from there, but we'll see what they actually do.
• Another storyline that is bound to lead to meltdowns on both sides is how this series will be refereed. The Sens enter the series as the team more likely to draw penalty calls and feature the players who are more likely to get under their opponent's skin. Combine that with the fact that the Leafs five-forward PP1 is extra dangerous while the Sens PK has been mediocre all season outside of some shorthanded scoring flair (lessened with the departure of Josh Norris), and you have the recipe for some special teams shenanigans.
• I found these player ratings from the folks at Evolving Hockey illustrative. Up front, will Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner play like the two best forwards in the series? Will Ottawa's depth overwhelm Toronto's? On defence, will playing Jake Sanderson and Thomas Chabot for 48 minutes be enough to mask the 12-14 minutes of Ottawa's third-pair?

Stats:

• from NHL.com and NaturalStatTrick.com

Obligatory pump-up video

Thanks to reader Jeweler08 for spotlighting this video from Reddit user Mr-Michael. I hope Danger Flutes (WTYKY stays undefeated!) returns for Game 3.