Ottawa Senators Are So Much Worse Than Toronto Maple Leafs

Ottawa Senators fans have been coming out of the woods to chirp Toronto Maple Leafs fans this week and it’s hilarious.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are so much better than the Ottawa Senators.

The Ottawa Senators haven’t made the playoffs in five straight years and that number will soon be six after the 2022-23 season.

I’ll break it down with not only the players, but also show their best goals and point totals in a single season:

Ottawa Senators:

• First Line:
  • Brady Tkachuk: 
    •  30 goals, 67 points
  • Josh Norris:
    •  35 goals, 55 points
  • Drake Batherson: 
    •  17 goals, 44 points

Second Line:

• • Alex DeBrincat:
    •  41 goals, 78 points
  • Tim Stutzle:
    •  22 goals, 58 points
  • Claude Giroux:
    •  34 goals, 102 points

Toronto Maple Leafs:

• First Line:
  • Michael Bunting
    • 23 goals, 63 points
  • Auston Matthews:
    • 60 goals, 106 points
  • Mitch Marner:
    • 35 goals, 97 points
• Second Line:
  • Alex Kerfoot:
    •  19 goals, 43 points
  • John Tavares:
    •  47 goals, 88 points
  • William Nylander:
    • 34 goals, 80 points

Ottawa’s first line compared to Toronto’s isn’t even close. The Leafs have the reigning Hart Trophy winner, who scored 60 (!!!) goals last year and they have Marner who was the best right-winger in the NHL for the second straight year.

Not only does Toronto have the best duo in the NHL, but they also have Michael Bunting on the wing at $950K who scored 23 goals and 63 points. Ottawa on the other hand, is paying Batherson $4.95M to register 20 less points.

Toronto Maple Leafs Are So Much Better Than Ottawa

As for the second-line, you can argue that Kerfoot is the worst player of the bunch, because that’s true. However, they have the possibility of adding either Nick Robertson or Matthew Knies to the line-up at a fraction of the price, who both have 30-goal potential.

Stutzle, DeBrincat and Giroux is a nice second-line, so I’ll give the Senators that, but Tavares is better than Stutzle and Nylander is better than Giroux right now. Giroux is 35-years-old and hasn’t been a point-per-game player in four years, while Nylander is only getting better.

DeBrincat has the most fire-power of all three of the forwards on the second-line, but at the same time, Nylander has still scored more points than him in a season. Also, his highest goals total is 34 compared to DeBrincat’s 41 goals, so it’s not like their lightyears away from each other, either.

There’s no reason to believe Nylander can’t outscore DeBrincat this year, as he’s seemingly getting better every single year.

Senators fans love to bash the Leafs because they haven’t won a playoff round since 2004, but they always seem to forget it was the Senators who the Leafs last beat in a playoff round. And for four years in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Toronto would beat the Senators every spring and ruin their chances at a Stanley Cup, which they’re probably still bitter about.

Ottawa is filled with excitement and potential, and that’s always fun but they’re going to get steamrolled by the Toronto Maple Leafs and the rest of the Atlantic Division every night and they aren’t going to make the playoffs.