The Maple Leafs and Senators have more in common than residing in the province of Ontario, playing in the same division and their intense rivalry as they face each other for the first time at the Air Canada Center tonight.

Both clubs have been fallen victim to a rather virulent strain of the injury bug. The Sens were already without Jared Cowan, Guillaume Latendresse, Peter Regin and 2011-12 leading scorer Jason Spezza, who had back surgery earlier in the month, but their season took a turn for the worse in Pittsburgh on Wednesday night, as they lost winger Milan Michalek to a knee injury and defenseman Erik Karlsson to a partially severed Achilles that will likely end the Norris Trophy winner’s season.

Toronto, who will honor the 50th anniversary of the 1963 Stanley Cup winning club prior to the game, don’t expect winger Joffrey Lupul to be back until mid-March, but will be getting Mike Brown back tonight, after being out three weeks with a shoulder injury courtesy of a fight with Buffalo’s Mike Weber.

Defenseman Carl Gunnarsson is close to being ready, after missing two weeks with a strained hip, but his injury is likely to hamper him for the remainder of the year and may require off-season surgery to remedy.

The status of James Reimer and Matt Frattin is at this point open ended. Both players are out with knee difficulties and are expected to be out for at least a week, but that is considered the best case scenario , , as the Leafs goalie could not get to the dressing room Tuesday night under his own power and the surgery performed on Frattin was on the same knee that was surgically repaired last summer.

Ben Scrivens, who made 30 saves in the loss in Carolina on Thursday night, will get his second straight start for Toronto, while Craig Anderson is expected to start for Ottawa. Anderson leads the NHL with a .949 save percentage, has a sparkling 1.58 GAA and has registered all seven Senator wins this season.

*******
The Globe and Mail’s James Mirtle had a very interesting take on Mikhail Grabovski’s recent scoring woes, citing the fact that his role has changed greatly from a scoring center under Ron Wilson to the club’s primary shutdown center under Randy Carlyle.

Using a statistical comparative, it shows that Grabovski is being used in more defensive situations than the majority of NHL centers and makes the case that Carlyle is using the 29 year old much in the same way he used Sammy Pahlsson with Anaheim.

Mirtle makes the case that this has been effective for Toronto, as the Leafs have improved defensively this season, but that it is not the proper use of Grabovski, who has scored 50 points or more the last two seasons.

Find Great Deals On Toronto Maple Leafs Tickets At FanXchange.com

If you are interested in sponsorship or advertising your business in the Greater Toronto / Southern Ontario area on this column, please send a message for more information by clicking on the “Contact” button at the top of the page.

For Those on Twitter: Follow @mikeinbuffalo

KINDLE USERS: Please sign up for Maple Leafs Buzz, which includes a free-of-charge 14-day trial and is just 99 cents per month afterwards. For more information click here.