The Ottawa Senators will host the Toronto Maple Leafs in a battle of Ontario as part of the Annual Hockey Day in Canada.

Win or lose, the Senators need a better effort in front of the bi-partisan crowd than they put forth in their last outing, the 4-1 loss at the hands of the St. Louis Blues.

With Nate Thompson leaving Thursday's game early, Colin White has been recalled again and is expected to play, but probably will get the same sheltered minutes he did in his last stint, much to the chagrin of the segment of the fan base who wants to see the prospects sink or swim at the NHL level.

One player who will be front and centre in that sink or swim situation is Thomas Chabot, who was told to find a place in Ottawa, meaning he is around for the long haul. I question this decision, based on past history with top prospects being rushed to the NHL (Cody Ceci, Curtis Lazar) without a decent amount of AHL seasoning. Each case is obviously different, but Chabot has played just 13 AHL games (Ceci played 30 before being called up permanently.

I guess Dorion needs to see what Chabot has if Erik Karlsson is going to be a Golden Knight within the next 6 weeks.

But I digress...

Toronto sits 16 points ahead of the Senators, in third place in the Atlantic Division. They had their 5 day bye week beginning at the same time as the Senators, but they had two fewer days off. The last time these teams met was heading into that bye, and Tom Pyatt scored the winner in Ottawa's 4-3 win in Toronto. That was a bounce-back game for Craig Anderson, who made 45 saves a night after being pulled in the dreadful loss to the Blackhawks the previous night. He could use a similar rebound game because he wasn't good against the Blues on Thursday.

The Buds have lost both of their games since returning, but managed to snag the loser point in each one by forcing extra time. While the Senators are a team in chaos, the Leafs are also having some internal struggles of their own and Freddie Andersen called out his team for lack of effort in the loss to the Flyers on Thursday and their offense has dried up this month.

Regardless of where each team sits in the standings, this game is always one that each fan base demands their team show up for, although the rivalry isn't what it was 10 to 15 years ago. Ottawa has won both games head to head so far this season, by scores of 4-1 and 4-3.

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