Toronto Maple Leafs hope to keep momentum going into season’s first battle of Ontario

After a rough start to the season opener where Jack Campbell was forced to bail out his teammates early and often during the first half of the opening frame, the team was able to settle down and control play for the remaining 50 minutes en route to a 2-1 win over their rival Montreal Canadiens. Winning a season opener against a rival is about as must-win as any game this early in the calendar can get for a team so the Toronto Maple Leafs will now look to ride that high of coming out on top of what was surely the most important Leafs vs Habs game of the past year into a game two matchup against the Ottawa Senators.

With this being the second game in two nights for the Leafs, the brand new goaltending tandem will be tested early as Petr Mrázek makes his Maple Leafs debut, hoping to match the stellar performance Jack Campbell put on the night before. Mrázek won’t be the only one getting tested however, as the Maple Leafs will be looking to show that they can have the killer instinct necessary to not only win games, but dominate games they should be winning. Much criticism has been tossed towards this Toronto team over their tendency to play down to opponents, and their inability to persevere through even the lightest of challenges. Playing the well-rested Senators the day after a hard fought win against the rival Canadiens will be Toronto’s first true how bad do you want it test of the season and could very well indicate whether the team has matured since last season’s horrific playoff collapse.

Last year, the Toronto Maple Leafs also played Ottawa in the second game of the season after stealing a one goal win over Montreal in game one. That resulted in a 5-3 Senators victory, so this time around the boys in blue will be hoping history doesn’t repeat itself as they look to make a statement by starting the season 2-0.