Maple Leafs wary of Ottawa Senators' ability to draw penalties

Article content

The Maple Leafs went directly to the drawing board in discussing the Ottawa Senators’ ability to get calls in their favour.

The Sens led the National Hockey League during the 2024-25 regular season with 349 penalties drawn.

The Leafs, whose penalty kill was 31st in the NHL after Jan. 15, will have no choice but to toe the line when the Battle of Ontario gets underway on Sunday. Ottawa was 11th on the power play through 82 games.

“We talked about a lot of it,” Leafs coach Craig Berube said. “We have to be disciplined, but you can’t be tentative either. We have to play physical and we have to be aggressive.

“It’s the stick work and getting on the wrong side of people and things like that, that a lot of times causes you to take penalties. We have to be disciplined. We got to be smart and play hard between the whistles.”

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

Play Video

Sens forward Tim Stutzle tied Nazem Kadri of the Calgary Flames for the NHL lead in drawing 38 penalties, while Ottawa captain Brady Tkachuk was third with 35.

The Tkachuk factor, and to what extent the Leafs can keep him in check, will be crucial in the best-of-seven series.

“He’s good at disrupting things out there, that’s part of his game,” Berube said. “He has a lot of gamesmanship. Play him hard, we understand that, but you have to be disciplined and not react to some of this stuff.

“He does a great job at the net front, so we have to make sure we’re strong there. He draws a lot of penalties just being at the net all the time and putting people in tough situations to take a penalty.”

The Leafs, meanwhile, were 22nd in penalties drawn with 268. Pontus Holmberg led the Leafs with 28 penalties drawn.

tkoshan@postmedia.com

X: @koshtorontosun