Why this Battle of Ontario sets scene for new era of rivalry

Now that the Battle of Ontario has been extended to a Game 5, there is a stronger sense that the hatred between the Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs — and their fans — will grow.

Three overtime games, the most recent a Game 5 thriller in Ottawa on Saturday, have this series with Toronto potentially building into something special. 

Admit it, you missed the wars that once took place between these franchises from 2000 to 2004. The good old days when Daniel Alfredsson was hammering Darcy Tucker like a nail into wood, and Curtis ‘Cujo’ Joseph was cutting down referee Mick McGeough with a chop block.

After a 21 year hiatus, there is reason to believe there could be plenty more Battles of Ontario on the horizon. The seeds of a great new rivalry are being sown. And here are 10 reasons why.

End a game with a goal in extra time, especially in a provincial battle, and your name is instantly etched into the annals of franchise history. So it is that Senators defenceman Jake Sanderson is the latest OT king, after his searing wrist shot from long range eluded Leafs goaltender Anthony Stolarz, who was just as screened as Linus Ullmark was in Game 3, when Toronto’s Simon Benoit scored in OT. Sanderson’s goal was the first playoff overtime winner for Ottawa since 2017, when they scored six OT goals en route to the Eastern Conference Final. That series with Pittsburgh ended in double OT on a goal by the Penguins’ Chris Kunitz. 

The last Senators player to score in extra time versus the Leafs was Mike Fisher in 2004. 

Sanderson just became a part of Battle of Ontario lore. 

Senators forward Ridly Greig set the table for this 2025 B of O series long before it became real. His slapshot into an empty net in February 2024 created instant animosity between the Leafs and Senators. Toronto defenceman Morgan Rielly cross-checked Greig in the head, earning a suspension. Just like that, the Battle of Ontario was back. Greig has since escalated hostilities. 

It only needed a bigger stage, such as this first round matchup between the provincial rivals. Greig wasted no time wiping out Leafs goaltender Stolarz in a Game 1 net drive. This seemed to give Stolarz reward points to spend because in Game 2, he repeatedly whacked Greig with his goal stick and hammered him to the ice. Nothing to see here but an offsetting minor penalty to go with Greig’s minor for being an innocent bystander (for once). 

This is what we call rivalry fuel. Greig, Nick Cousins and Brady Tkachuk have very quickly emerged as enemies of the first order to Leaf Nation. Defenceman Artem Zub will get some votes after decking Leafs centre John Tavares in overtime Saturday. Tavares was shaken up and unavailable for power-play duty when the Leafs had a four-minute man advantage in OT. 

That failure to score gave the Senators new life. 

Ottawa fans have to dig a little deeper to find villains on a Leafs team not known for being nasty. Stolarz has stepped up in a big way. Max Domi qualifies, just by being a Domi. His stick to the head of Shane Pinto in the faceoff circle in the first period of Game 4 was more dumb than mean. Matthew Knies shows promise as an antagonist. Ryan Reaves would be ideal but can’t crack the lineup. Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner qualify just by wearing the uniform.

Rivalries need enemies. 

The Senators have enough kids on their roster to annoy the Leafs for years. Greig is 22. Sanderson is 22. Tim Stutzle, 23. Tkachuk, 25. 

Senators fans have to dig a bit deeper to find anti-heroes across the divide. Who’s the next Domi, Tucker or Shayne Corson? Knies is 22. He’s the only regular on the Leafs roster born this century, so we are going to have to wait for some legit villains to come down the pipeline. 

Only a hockey player would say that getting slashed, high-sticked, cross-checked and knocked to the ice was a “fun” experience. But that was how Greig described his first playoff games in Toronto, which featured the abuse from Stolarz near the goal crease. 

“These past two games, I don’t think I’ve ever had this much fun playing hockey,” Greig said as the series shifted to Ottawa.

When pain is pleasure, a playoff rivalry can’t be far off. 

Sometimes, legends have to share past animosities so that today’s kids can understand the depth of a rivalry. For example, fireball pitcher Pedro Martinez of the Boston Red Sox can speak to young players about the time Yankees’ coach Don Zimmer charged the mound, got tossed to the ground and all hell broke loose. 

As the Battle of Ontario resumes, long-retired participants are drawn back into the theatre, to talk about those previous series, reinforcing their lustre. Tucker gets a voice. So do Alfredsson and former Ottawa tough guy Chris Neil. Senators goaltender Patrick Lalime, one of the classiest people to wear this crest, talks freely about that nightmarish Game 7 in 2004, when a couple of long range missiles from Leafs centre Joe Nieuwendyk eluded him. To his credit, Lalime does not shy away from looking back. He filled a column for Chris Johnston of The Athletic last week. 

“The hate for the Leafs, well, it took years to get over it,” Lalime told my old Battle of Ontario pal, Mike Zeisberger, who covered those series for the Toronto Sun when I was with the Ottawa Citizen. Zeisberger now files for NHL.com 

“When you put on that Ottawa jersey, you just don’t like Toronto,” Lalime added. “And you certainly don’t like their fans, especially when they try to take over your building.

“Even now, you feel it.”

Ottawa players have always hated seeing all that blue-and-white at the CTC. It was meaningful when the Sens packed the house with their own fans Thursday and Saturday for Games 3 and 4, although more Bud supporters showed up last night. 

“They go off-leash on Saturday,” said one security volunteer. 

Hockey is a child’s game played by men who don’t have to grow up. Is it any wonder that so many delve into childish antics and others get worked up over them? How else to describe the league’s heavy hand, throwing fines at Senators owner Michael Andlauer and to his forward Nick Cousins, who slid a puck during the pre-game warmup across centre ice in the direction of Stolarz. Cousins and Stolarz were teammates last season in Florida. They’re pals. Do you really think that gentle puck toss bothered Stolarz? To his credit, Senators head coach Travis Green mockingly denied comment about an “ongoing investigation” into the incident. Silly stuff. From which rivalries grow. 

As shots go, the Cousins muffin was no empty net clapper and certainly no Alfredsson bomb at Scott Niedermayer in 2007. 

We look at the players, but it’s really the fans who stoke the fires with their vitriol and chirping online. Fans tease, prod and bait each other. Banners become sacred cloth. Or vile rags, depending on one’s perspective. Who can forget the outrage in Toronto when the Ottawa Sun newspaper hired a pilot to fly a “Leafs Suck — Go Sens Go!” banner across the big city skyline during the 2004 series. All in good fun until the pilot was sent death threats.  

Last week, on the morning of Game 3, Ottawa commuters along the 417 toward Kanata grew livid over a Leafs banner flying high from a building construction site. A Sens fan nicknamed ‘Snow Plow Dave’ notified the local sports station and the construction site manager, who blamed a “Toronto subcontractor” for this mortal sin. Not only was that Leafs flag taken down, the Senators quickly delivered a Sens flag to replace it. Phew. Honour restored. For locals, this was the greatest flag kerfuffle since the Atlanta Braves inadvertently hoisted the Canadian flag upside down during the anthems of the 1992 World Series against the Toronto Blue Jays. 

Rivalries spawn penmanship. Not Pulitzers, mind you. And so in Toronto, “Brady sucks” and in Ottawa, “Domi is dumb and ugly,” according to one local fan with access to magic markers. “Mar-ner’s Leaving!” was one of the more creative crowd chants at the CTC. And of course, the Leafs suck, according to signs and T-shirts visible throughout the building. The year 1967, which ought to be a badge of honour as a Stanley Cup win by a venerable Leafs team, is instead a mark of derision, the punch line to a joke — because of the long drought that followed. Never mind that the Senators haven’t won since 1927. They get a mulligan because the franchise was dormant from 1934 to 1992. 

An interesting sign seen Saturday: “Game 1 of the biggest comeback in Sens history!”

Let’s see if that sign has legs as the series shifts to Toronto for Game 5.

The Senators are a different animal under the ownership of billionaire Andlauer, who just sold his healthcare company for a cool $2.2 billion. Andlauer will stay on with the purchaser, UPS, as head of UPS Healthcare Canada. The deal includes more than $1B in cash, according to a report in the Globe & Mail this week. The rich get richer. In contrast to the previous Sens owner, Eugene Melnyk, whose wealth declined after buying the NHL club in 2003, Andlauer has the means and drive to make Ottawa a championship-calibre club. Toronto has always been able and willing to spend on a winner. 

Long range, these two teams should be competitive for years to come, although the older Leafs roster may have a retool, if not a rebuild, in the near future. 

10. Atlantic Division brothers

With the Senators and Leafs in the same division, the odds are pretty good that as long as they qualify for the playoffs they will be butting heads for years to come. The playoff format encourages divisional series. Only a lengthy Senators rebuild, marked by an eight-year playoff absence, plotted against a Battle of Ontario redux. For better or worse, we may have to get used to more Sens-Leafs playoffs, not to mention another round of Ottawa-Montreal given how quickly the Canadiens have returned to prominence. 

Canada East is on the rise. Passion is on the menu.