This has to be the latest first edition of the Battle of Ontario ever, no?

After a dramatic playoff series, I was looking forward to the regularly scheduled October meeting between these two teams, only to be perplexed to see them not play until December. Regardless, Ottawa and Toronto will play each other three more times over the next four months, and given the way the standings are shaping up, expect a lot more drama to unfold.

Let’s get you set for tonight’s contest:

Sens lines

Dennis Gilbert and Xavier Bourgault were called up before practice this morning – see lines below – but only the latter will draw into the lineup for his NHL debut, with the team expecting Nick Jensen to play.

Tkachuk-Stützle-Zetterlund
Perron-Cozens-Batherson
Amadio-Greig-Giroux
MacDermid/Bourgault-Halliday-Cousins

Sanderson-Zub
Chabot-Spence
Gilbert-Matinpalo

Looks like Nick Jensen and Tyler Kleven won’t be in the lineup tonight.

Lars Eller and Pinto are on IR.

H/t @stdenissports.bsky.social

— Julian McKenzie (@jkamckenzie.bsky.social) 2025-12-27T16:43:22.950Z

Injured: Tyler Kleven (IR), Shane Pinto (IR)

Leafs lines

Meanwhile, here’s how the Leafs lined up at their morning skate, with Joseph Woll expect to start against Linus Ullmark:

#Leafs lines at morning skate Dec. 27/25

McMann-Matthews-Domi
Maccelli-Tavares-Nylander
Knies-Roy-Robertson
Joshua-Laughton-Lorentz
Extra: Cowan, Jarnkrok

Rielly-Myers
McCabe-Tanev
OEL-Stecher
Extra: Thrun, Benoit, Carlo (IR)

Woll
Hildeby@BodogCA pic.twitter.com/36LpiQQ34S

— David Alter (@dalter) December 27, 2025

Injured: Anthony Stolarz (IR), Brandon Carlo (IR)

Game notesBoth teams are starting to get healthy, with Chris Tanev and Joseph Woll returning to the Leafs lineup this month, and Tyler Kleven and Shane Pinto expected back soon. The Leafs have used five goalies already halfway through the season, and Woll’s clearly been their best starter, rocking a 0.923 save-percentage in 11 games. The Sens didn’t really see much of him last season, so we’ll see if that makes any difference tonight. In putting together the team statistics table (below), I was shocked to see how different these two teams rank. The Sens are better in just about every meaningful category outside of the PK, with the Leafs ranking near the bottom of the league in most major defensive statistics. If the standings remain as they are, it’s hard to imagine Berube lasting another season, which is something for Sens fans who wanted him as Ottawa’s coach over Travis Green to keep in mind. In particular, Auston Matthews has had a tough year, and the Marner-less Leafs don’t have the star power depth anymore to pick up the slack, even with bounce-back seasons from John Tavares and Morgan Rielly. Mattias Maccelli, Marner’s “replacement”, has good scoring chance metrics, but hasn’t produced much on the scoresheet. The other two primary newcomers are Nicolas Roy and Dakota Joshua. Roy’s been disappointing, while Joshua has played in line with his career averages. Ultimately, neither have helped the team progress from where they were in seasons past. Expect to hear the broadcast drone on about the Leafs new powerplay, given that the 32nd (!) ranked unit fired assistant Marc Savard and replaced him with Steve Sullivan, the ex-NHLer and Coyotes AGM who was promoted from his assistant coaching role with the Marlies. As we turn our attention to the Senators, it’s nice to see Xavier Bourgault make his NHL debut tonight. The return from the Järventie trade, Bourgault has 27 points in 32 AHL games (Järventie has 19 in 23 with Bakersfield) and forms a dynamite top-line alongside Arthur Kaliyev and Philippe Daoust. He’s been hard on pucks, has an edge to his game, and can pull off some sneaky plays with his playmaking ability. It should be fun to watch him alongside Stephen Halliday on L4 tonight against a veteran Leafs group. We’re unsure as to why Nick Jensen didn’t skate today – some unconfirmed reports mentioned travel delays, while others mentioned a lingering injury. Jensen has had a tough year defensively, and has seen his minutes dropped to third-pair (15-16 minutes per game) levels. It’ll be interesting to see how often he lines up with Chabot or if Spence continues to receive most of those minutes. Statistics

Game 37SenatorsLeafs
Category#Rank#Rank
Goals/GP3.228th3.199th
Goals against/GP3.1418th3.3326th
Shots/GP27.919th2722nd
Shots against/GP25.44th31.131st
Powerplay %26.14th1332nd
Penalty Kill %71.731st83.35th
Corsi % (5v5 SVA)53.144th45.4531st
xGF% (5v5 SVA)55.053rd48.6124th

SenatorsLeafs
CategoryPlayer#Player#
GoalsStützle18Tavares, Matthews14
AssistsBatherson22Nylander27
PointsStützle39Nylander40
ShotsStützle93Matthews114
TOI/GPSanderson25:11McCabe21:59