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The Toronto Maple Leafs were unable to take advantage of a team playing their second of back-to-back games, surrendering a two-goal lead late in the third period and losing 3-2 in overtime to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday. The club has another opportunity to take advantage of a weary team, as the Ottawa Senators visit Air Canada Centre on Wednesday.
The Sens continue to wallow near the bottom of the Atlantic Division, with a 14-18-9 record (37 pts) and got walloped 8-2 by the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday, but did win the only previous meeting with the Leafs in Ottawa in October.
The Leafs have been unable to convert on their scoring attempts with the frequency that they did early in the season. In January, they are averaging under two goals per game but still have a 2-1-1 record thanks to their effectiveness in the shootout and the goaltending of Frederik Andersen.
Andersen will make his sixth straight start for Toronto on Wednesday, but Leafs head coach Mike Babcock has chosen to make one lineup change, inserting Connor Carrick and sitting rookie Travis Dermott.
Dermott played well in his second NHL game, mostly on the second pairing with Jake Gardiner. The 21-year-old saw over 16 minutes in ice time and had two shots on goal, but was on the ice for the Blue Jackets first goal on Monday.
Babcock indicated that Dermott, Carrick and Andreas Borgman are in a rotation for two blueline spots, but with the Toronto Marlies playing twice on the weekend in Charlotte, it is possible that the Leafs will send Dermott back to the AHL during their five-day break.
Craig Anderson allowed four goals on 26 shots before being pulled in favor of backup Mike Condon on Tuesday, but Condon allowed four as well and was on the ice for the Sens optional morning skate, which likely means that Anderson will get the start for Ottawa.
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There continues to be speculation that Senators team captain Erik Karlsson will leave Ottawa when he becomes an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2019 or will be traded next summer if the two-time Norris Trophy winner will not agree to an extension.
With the Leafs in need of an upgrade on their blueline, it is only logical that they would be interested in Karlsson, but the question is whether Sens GM Pierre Dorion and/or owner Eugene Melnyk would approve a deal to arguably Ottawa’s biggest rival.
That fact did not stop the two clubs from dealing with each other two years ago when Toronto was shopping team captain Dion Phaneuf, but the Leafs were more concerned with getting the remaining five years and $35 Million of Phaneuf’s deal off of their payroll and less about facing him when the Sens can to town.
The Sens trading Karlsson to the Leafs could potentially be the modern day comparative to Red Sox owner Harry Frazee trading Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees to fund his Broadway play “No, No Nanette…, making Dorion and especially Melnyk the target of more ridicule.
There will be plenty of suitors for Karlsson, if the Sens truly decide to shop him at the NHL Draft or in early July, but if the Leafs are involved, it will likely cost them more to acquire him than if for example Dallas were making an offer.
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