It has been more than two decades since the Toronto Maple Leafs faced the Ottawa Senators in the playoffs. The last time these two clubs collided in the postseason was back in 2004. I was in college back then, social media didn’t exist (not really), and Blackberries were a thing.
Fast forward to 2025, and the world has drastically changed. The Leafs and Senators are two completely different teams. Both clubs went through painful rebuilds and have emerged as playoff contenders.
So, let’s take a deeper dive into what we can expect from the Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators in their first-round clash in the 2025 NHL playoffs.
2025 NHL playoff preview: Toronto Maple Leafs vs Ottawa Senators
Overview
The Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators enter the postseason on similar paths. The Leafs are riding a five-game winning streak and an 9-1-0 record in their last 10 games.
Meanwhile, the Ottawa Senators entered the postseason with a 6-2-2 mark in their last 10 and showing no signs of cooling off from their second-half surge.
Overall, the Senators are one of the toughest-checking teams in the league. What they lack in elite scoring talent, they make up in raw skill and determination. Captain Brady Tkachuk is an engine that just won’t quit. He doesn’t back down from challenges and rises to the occasion when needed.
Top scorers like Tim Stutzle, Drake Betherson, and blue liner Jake Sanderson can break a game wide-open at any time. Moreover, veterans like Claude Giroux and Thomas Chabot add leadership to a talented young core.
Then, there’s Linus Ullmark. The former Vezina Trophy winner can steal games with the best of them. If he gets on a roll, the Leafs could find themselves struggling to find goals. While Ullmark has had a stinker here or there this season, he’s been mostly good for Ottawa.
The Leafs will have to overwhelm the Senators with high-end offensive skills from players like William Nylander. The leader in breakaway goals this season could make life difficult for the Senators.
Add Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews to the mix, and the Sens will have their hands full. But I think John Tavares has the potential to be the real star in this series. He could sneak in behind the Sens’ blue line and cause significant damage.
With plenty of depth scorers like Bobby McMann, Nick Robertson, and Max Domi, the Leafs should get plenty of chances to score.
This series looks like it will be decided in five or six games either way. If the Leafs can leverage home-ice advantage and take the first two games, the series could be over quickly. Otherwise, the Senators could run away with the series early.
The Toronto Maple Leafs defense must step up
The Leafs much-improved defense this season will need to step up. Granted, the Leafs' blue line is massive with huge bodies like Brandon Carlo, Simon Benoit, and Chris Tanev manning the blue line.
The Leafs should also have Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Jake McCabe back in the fold. That situation will make the Leafs' defense a nightmare to play against. Having Carlo should allow Morgan Rielly to wheel and deal. Rielly could be a serious wild card for the Leafs as having Carlo in the back end adds reliability and security.
The Senators will be looking to grind the Leafs down with their relentless forechecking. I would have worried about this last season. But the Leafs are a different team now and have grown into a grinding powerhouse in their own right.
The Senators will be hard-pressed to match the Leafs' physicality, while also meeting their speed and top-tier scoring prowess.
Toronto Maple Leafs goaltending a strength
For the first time in a long while, the narrative surrounding the Toronto Maple Leafs' goaltending is a positive one. Joseph Woll and Anthony Stolarz have been solid all season long. That situation allows the Leafs to roll with both goalies in the postseason.
We hope that alternating goalies will be nothing more than a load management issue. Stolarz is unproven in the postseason and Woll may not be able to handle the workload over a long playoff run. Still, the Leafs look set between the pipes.
As for the Senators, yes, Ullmark is a former Vezina winner and has some playoff experience. If the Leafs can get to Ullmark, the Senators won't be able to turn to a reliable backup to supplant Ullmark. As such, the mission will be to overwhelm Ullmar from the get-go.
Looking back at the Leafs-Senators regular-season series
All right, it’s time to address the elephant in the room. Much of the chatter surrounding this series has been the fact that the Senators swept the season series. The Sens took all three games during the regular season.
Now, I should point out that neither game was a blowout or a stinker. The worst game was a 3-0 blanking by the Sens on November 12. The Leafs get a pass in that game as they were still trying to find their new identity under Craig Berube.
The other two games were tight 2-1 and 4-2 contests. Yes, the Leafs lost both games, but they were learning lessons on the path to this year’s postseason.
The good news is that these games are now meaningless. What counts is Game 1 played on Sunday night at Scotiabank Arena. The Leafs and Sens will both start from scratch. So, there’s no point in looking back at the regular-season series as a predictive measure.
But I will say this: The regular-season series provides valuable insights the Leafs will surely be looking to correct in order to get past the Senators. If that’s the case, the Senators will once again face their playoff nemesis, leaving with a sense of “what if.”