Leafs, Senators, history and pressure: What success means in the Battle of Ontario

New York Times

18-04-2025

The most anticipated matchup in the NHL Eastern Conference playoffs is undoubtedly the Battle of Ontario between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Ottawa Senators, as these provincial rivals are set to clash once again after 21 years.
Toronto has won all four previous playoff meetings, but Ottawa dominated the regular season series, sweeping the Leafs 3-0. The Senators are making their first postseason appearance since 2017, and while they swept aside the Maple Leafs in the regular season, Toronto enters the series as Atlantic Division champions.
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On the latest episode of The Athletic Hockey Show, Sean McIndoe, Sean Gentille, and Frankie Corrado discussed if Ottawa's season will still be considered a success even if it ends in a first-round exit, and why all the pressure is on Toronto heading into this series.
A partial transcript has been edited for clarity and length. The full episode is available on the 'The Athletic Hockey Show' feed on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Sean McIndoe: I don't want to undersell how important this series is in Ottawa. A lot of Senators fans still have the scars of those four playoff losses, and to climb all this way and then lose to the Leafs again would be very painful. But purely from just a hockey point of view, the Senators have already achieved the goal for this year. The Senators are already a success, and pending whatever happens, they don't need to win the series here. The Toronto Maple Leafs have not accomplished anything because there was nothing they could do short of a playoff run.
Sean Gentille: What if it's Leafs in five? What if this is a short series? Are we still saying this is a success for the Senators?
Sean McIndoe: It'll sting for Ottawa, absolutely. But you will still look at the season as a success, and say, 'Man, I wish we had lost to anybody but the Leafs in the first round.' But as far as the pressure in this series, I don't think there's any question it's on the Leafs, and they will feel that. I'm sure the Senators players will remind them of it at every opportunity.
Mentally, this could be a hurdle for the Leafs. If you're the Leafs, you will look back on last year in the playoffs, even though you probably don't want to. But like Frankie said, they just can't score in the playoffs, and this always happens to them. They had one game against the Bruins where they managed three goals in a game, but only one. They were looking at each other, going, 'Hey, who's the goalie in that game?' All right, that was the one game that the Bruins started Linus Ullmark. We couldn't score on Jeremy Swayman, but we did pretty well against Ullmark. So maybe that's where you feel okay … right up until he makes 15 saves in the first period in Game 1 then you're down 1-0 in intermission, and you're looking around going, 'It's all happening again, here we go.'
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Frankie Corrado: There's no doubt that the pressure is all on Toronto. Based on the playoff past, the scar tissue that has followed them, and only having one series win in nine years. Also, Toronto's got fan pressure, or whatever you want to call it. They're playing home games in Toronto, and they have a massive contingent out in Ottawa. So a little bit of that follows them around. I'm not saying that's going to be a deterrent or anything like that. But the pressure will be felt on home ice and on the road somewhat equally.
But it does feel a little bit different for Toronto this year, they're operating differently. They've achieved the same result by being a good team and going to the playoffs. They even call it a better result because they've won a division now, and they're operating a little differently in how they do things. But this is when we wanted to see if that's going to work. The Craig Berube evaluation, or whatever you want to call it, starts now for Berube and this team. We knew this was almost a formality that they were going to get to the playoffs. But now, does it look different? And the crazy thing is, it's two weeks. You make this entire evaluation, you play all these games, and you make this evaluation over a quick two-week stretch where things can happen quickly. But that's reality for this group based on what has happened in the past.
Sean Gentille: And the first division title in 25 years too …
Frankie Corrado: The first one that counts …
Sean Gentille: Does that carry any weight? I'm asking you guys specifically because it seems like a complete afterthought.
Sean McIndoe: They could have won the Presidents' Trophy, and it would not matter. You can't win a playoff series during the regular season. It's not like, 'Wow, they haven't done enough.' It's that there was nothing they could do. They could go 82-0, we all made that joke heading into the season. The Leafs could go 82-0, but it wouldn't have mattered. They have to do it in the playoffs, and now the playoffs are here.
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To pull it back to the original Battle of Ontario, that was always the thing hanging over the Senators back then. Remember those Senators teams were really good under Jacques Martin, but they just couldn't get over the hump. Back then, the hump wasn't necessarily the first round because they did win a couple of rounds. But they couldn't get past the Leafs. And they ended up making the coaching change, the lockout happened, and they got to a final. But they never got past the finish line. Now it's flipped around, and the pressure is all on one team in a series that's going to have a ton of media coverage, national attention and spotlight.
Frankie Corrado: And social media. We never had social media for the original Battles of Ontario in the early 2000s. We had newspapers and what you saw on the broadcast, and during intermissions. So from the fan experience, this is going to be totally different this time around.
Sean McIndoe: Everybody just stay frosty is what I'm saying to Leafs and Senators fans. I'm going to say the same thing to you I said to Brady Tkachuk … 10 out of 10, not 15 out of 10. That's all I'm asking.
Sean Gentille: Meanwhile, I'm stuck being compelled by this series. I wish I wasn't, but I blame you guys, my profession and various aspects of my personal life for this. I am way too invested in this one.
You can listen to full episodes of The Athletic Hockey Show for free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
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