Game day preview: Ottawa Senators at Toronto Maple Leafs 10/03/2026
The Ottawa Senators open their 2026-27 season tonight as they visit Scotiabank Arena to take on the Toronto Maple Leafs.
While this is the first game of the Senators' season, the Maple Leafs will be playing their third. Back-to-back games on Tuesday and Wednesday saw Toronto lose 3-2 to the Montreal Canadiens and defeat the New York Islanders 2-1.
This Is Ottawa Sports Now's pregame show will be live on YouTube shortly before puck drop, and This Is Overtime will follow immediately after the final horn.
SENATORS PROJECTED LINEUP
Foegele–Stützle–Batherson
Eklund–Cozens–Zetterlund
Amadio–Pinto–Giroux
Cousins–Halliday–Hodgson
Sanderson–Matinpalo
Chabot–Spence
Kleven–Yakemchuk
Ullmark
Ersson
GAME NOTES
The Senators may be the final team in the league to start their season, but tonight begins a stretch of four games in six days. Much has been made of this team's slow starts in recent seasons, something they cannot afford in an increasingly deep Atlantic Division.
Plenty of eyes will be on Jake Sanderson, who has been dealing with an undisclosed injury. He left his only preseason game on Sept. 26 for precautionary reasons and wasn't a full participant in practice until Friday's skate.
André Burakovsky left that same game early and is dealing with an upper-body injury. He practised in a non-contact jersey on Friday. Warren Foegele has taken his expected spot on the top line with Tim Stützle and Drake Batherson.
Expect Jordan Spence to log heavy minutes, as the right side of the Senators' blue line runs through him right now. He thrived in an elevated role down the stretch last season, playing more than 25 minutes per night when Ottawa's defence was plagued by injuries.
Nikolas Matinpalo slots in next to Sanderson, as Artem Zub continues to recover from a knee injury suffered in the playoffs. Zub practiced in a non-contact jersey on Friday.
Newcomer William Eklund makes his official Senators debut on a line with Dylan Cozens and Fabian Zetterlund. Much has been said about Eklund and Zetterlund's friendship and chemistry from their time with the San Jose Sharks, but Cozens may have been Ottawa's best forward in the preseason.
Linus Ullmark gets the start in goal, and the Senators need him to be the goaltender he was to close out last season. After the Olympic break, he put up a 12-4-3 record with a 2.51 goals-against average and .902 save percentage. The team would rather forget his first half of the year.
Ridly Greig begins his two-game suspension after roughing Sean Walker in game four of the Carolina series.
MAPLE LEAFS PROJECTED LINEUP
Marchenko–Matthews–Roslovic
McKenna–Tavares–Nylander
Cowan–Paul–Sissons
Groulx–Blueger–Duhaime
Rielly–Raddysh
McCabe–Tanev
Ekman-Larsson–Stecher
Bobrovsky
Stolarz
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