Auston Matthews Has Choice Words About Brady Tkachuk Before the Heated Battle of Ontario
Photo credit: © Marc DesRosiers-Imagn Images
The Battle of Ontario is set to get underway, and Leafs' Auston Matthews revealed his feelings on Senators' Brady Tkachuk prior to the series.
Auston Matthews and Brady Tkachuk will face each other in Round 1 of the NHL playoffs as the Maple Leafs host the Senators.
Toronto took home the Atlantic Division title, and that gave them home-ice advantage. Ottawa grabbed the East's first wild-card berth.
Matthews knows Tkachuk will constantly be in front of their net this series
Prior to Sunday's Game 1, Matthews praised Tkachuk as a tireless player who's always around the net.
"Yeah, he's a competitor," Matthews said. "He's a guy that is going to do whatever it takes, and physically he's going to be around the net, so he's going to be a guy that we have to do a good job on in all aspects of that area."
The two, along with Ottawa defenseman Jake Sanderson, played together for Team USA at the Four Nations Faceoff, with Matthews captaining the squad.
Sanderson was added late as a replacement for Quinn Hughes, and the team lost 3-2 in overtime to Canada in the final game. Sanderson was a great regular-season player, recording 11 goals and 46 assists in 80 contests.
"Great player," Matthews said. "Especially in that setting, when you're around guys more and you're skating together, you really realize how gifted and talented some guys are and skilled. That was my takeaway with him.
"Similar to Brady, he's another guy we got to key on, make sure we're limiting his time and space out there, and making sure we know where he is at all times because he's very elusive."
"Similar to Brady, he's another guy we got to key on, make sure we're limiting his time and space out there, and making sure we know where he is at all times because he's very elusive."
The Maple Leafs have appeared in the playoffs nine straight seasons but won only one series during those years. They lost to the Bruins in seven games last year.
Ottawa last made the playoffs in their 2017 conference final trip. Each team is looking to make a deeper playoff run this year.
Even after missing 15 games due to injury, Matthews still scored 33 goals and 45 assists. He tied Sidney Crosby for 26th in the league goal scoring and scored one in Thursday's 4-3 OT win over Detroit.
Tkachuk also returned Thursday after an upper-body injury caused him to miss eight games. He skated 10:37 of ice time against Carolina with three shots and a minus-2 rating.
Head coach Travis Green classified his early exit as precautionary, and Tkachuk will play Sunday in a top-six position with power-play duty.
| POLL | ||
AVRIL 20 | 246 ANSWERS Auston Matthews Has Choice Words About Brady Tkachuk Before the Heated Battle of Ontario Who will win this series? | ||
| Toronto | 172 | 69.9 % |
| Ottawa | 74 | 30.1 % |
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