Coach Fletcher’s NHL Pick

Saturday, Oct 10

4:00 pm   Ottawa Senators at Toronto Maple Leafs

The Pick   1*     Ottawa -140   William Hill

It’s been more than a little crazy at the Air Canada Centre.  The Maple Leafs have suffered back to back losses under new coach Mike Babcock.  That’s not the way the Maple Leafs or their fans wanted to start the season.  Ottawa will try to pile on and make it 3 straight.

It isn’t a given for the Senators because they have not performed well in Toronto.  In fact, the Maple Leafs are riding a 6 home win streak against the Senators.  That’s a problem the Senators hope to cure tonight.  They are 0-3-3 in Toronto of late and a crowd with as much emotion as anywhere could play a part.  The crowd could also help the Senators if Ottawa can jump to the lead.  Fans are not expecting the Leafs to lose their first 3 and if they get down, the fans will yelp in displeasure.

Coach Dave Cameron’s Senators opened the season with a 3-1 win in Buffalo on Thursday.  Kyle Turris had 2 goals in the contest.

Against Detroit, Jonathan Bernier started in the Net for the Leafs and stopped just 6 on 9.  James Reimer replaced Bernier and stopped 12 of 13 in the Leafs 4-0 blanking by the Red Wings. 

In game one the Leafs outshot Montreal 37-30 but lost 3-1.  They have scored just 1 goal in two games and that came from James Van Riemsdyk.  Toronto traded their leading point man Phil Kessel and added 4 new forwards this season.  It might take a while for these guys to jell, but that’s what practice and pre-season is for. Obviously, the offense is having more than its share of problems.

Ottawa missed the playoffs for the second straight time last year despite finishing strong at 6-0-1.  The one blip on the record was an overtime loss at Toronto. 

Craig Anderson is going to have to improve his play in the goal if Ottawa is to win this.  In his first 8 starts against Toronto Anderson went 6-1-0 with a 2.06 average goals against mark.  In his last for starts against the Maple Leafs, Anderson is 0-2-2 with a 3.63 goals against average.  That will probably not be acceptable in this one tonight.

Although there are more than enough indications that this is not going to be an easy one, I’m taking the Senators to hand the Maple Leafs their third straight loss.  There has been a lot of shuffling on the Leafs’ part and I think that has been a negative effect on the team.  Ottawa finished strong last year and started strong this season.  I think they will win a close one here.

The Pick   1*  Ottawa Senators   -140   William Hill