GAME DAY: Toronto Maple Leafs @ Ottawa Senators - 7:00pm ET - SAT. Apr. 2, 2011

...Ceci n'est pas un GDT.

Gameday preview from NHL.com (yeah, I plagiarized; but the formatting is all mine!)

MAPLE LEAFS (36-32-10) at SENATORS (30-38-10)
TV: CBC (HD)

Last 10: Toronto 7-3-0; Ottawa 5-4-1

Season series:
Sixth and final meeting of the season between these Northeast Division rivals. Ottawa has won three of five to this point, including a 1-0 win in Toronto in the most recent matchup on Feb. 19, with Craig Anderson and James Reimer posting dueling shutouts through 65 minutes of play before Jason Spezza scored the decisive shootout goal.

Big story:
With four games remaining, the Maple Leafs basically need to win out and get some help from the teams facing the Sabres, Rangers and Hurricanes. Toronto is five points behind both Buffalo and New York, which hold down the final two Eastern Conference playoff berths, and trails Carolina by two points.

Team Scope:

Maple Leafs: With no margin for error after a 4-2 loss in Detroit last Saturday night, Toronto won its following two outings over Buffalo and Boston, giving the Maple Leafs five victories in six games. Joffrey Lupul scored in the third period to force overtime against the Bruins and when five extra minutes didn't decide anything it came down to a shootout, where rookie Nazem Kadri had the only goal for a 4-3 win.

"It was a playoff atmosphere," coach Ron Wilson said. "If that's the only playoffs we see, it can make the team better."

Senators: For a significant period of time Ottawa was stuck in the Eastern Conference basement, but the Senators' improved play since the trade deadline has lifted them past the Panthers by virtue of having three more non-shootout wins than Florida. The Senators beat the Panthers 4-1 on Thursday behind a pair of goals from Colin Greening, who was promptly re-assigned Friday to AHL Binghamton, where he's shuffled back and forth repeatedly this season.

"That was fantastic," Greening said. "It's my first multiple-goal game. It's nice to get two goals. I can't really describe the feeling."

Who's hot: Lupul initially struggled after the Maple Leafs acquired him from the Ducks, but he currently has 4 goals and 2 assists over his last five games. Phil Kessel has 1 goal and 6 assists during a six-game points streak. … Anderson is 3-0-1 in his last four starts and 9-4-1 with a 1.92 goals-against average and .944 save percentage for the Senators after being traded by the Avalanche.

Injury report:
Toronto is missing forwards Colton Orr (concussion) and Colby Armstrong (broken foot).
Ottawa defenseman Erik Karlsson suffered a laceration to his right thigh against Florida that coach Cory Clouston said required around 25 stitches, and is likely to miss Saturday's game. Captain Daniel Alfredsson (back), who last played Feb. 7, has been skating with the team. Forward Peter Regin (shoulder), defensemen Matt Carkner (knee) and Sergei Gonchar (concussion) and goalie Pascal Leclaire (hip) are also sidelined.

Stat pack:
Kessel picked up two assists for the Maple Leafs on Thursday, giving him 60 points. That ties his career high set during his final season with the Bruins in 2008-09, when Kessel scored a career-best 36 goals. He has 29 this season. …

The Senators' penalty kill has been successful on 79 of its last 82 opportunities, a 96.3-percent success rate.

Puck drop:
Reimer was named the NHL's Rookie of the Month on Friday. During March, the 23-year-old went 9-4-1 with a 2.87 GAA, .913 save percentage and a shutout of Minnesota. He has been in goal for each of Toronto's last 14 wins.

Questions to answer:

Will Alfie play or was that just April Fool?
Will a defenseman be called up or is one of Carkner/Gonchar ready to go?
Where will DaCosta play?

citizen says that alfie isn't close yet so I assume he's not playing...

I still don't see why the sens can try playing with 5 d-men? dress lessard officially as a d-man, and play him barely on the 4th line, that way we could have kept greening up here.

Has anyone ever used this?
http://4streamtv.blogspot.com/

Michallica wrote:citizen says that alfie isn't close yet so I assume he's not playing...

I still don't see why the sens can try playing with 5 d-men? dress lessard officially as a d-man, and play him barely on the 4th line, that way we could have kept greening up here.

Greening was on an emergency injury callup. Once they got an extra forward in the lineup (DaCosta) he had to be sent back. I believe that's just the rules.

hmm I guess that makes sense...

Let me know how DaCosta was...
maybe his first NHL goal?

It's a win-win tonight.

We win, the Leafs playoffs hopes are dead (even though they should already be dead).

We lose, good for Tank Nation.

Anderson to start (natch). DaCosta will center a line with Shanon and Condra.

Bingo signs two NCAA players to PTO/ATO -- could one of them be the one Tim Murray mentioned? I know Bingo and Ottawa are separate entities, but Tim is involved with both. Patrick Coulombe to a PTO and Brock Matheson (former Kanata Stallion) to an ATO.

wprager wrote:Bingo signs two NCAA players to PTO/ATO -- could one of them be the one Tim Murray mentioned? I know Bingo and Ottawa are separate entities, but Tim is involved with both. Patrick Coulombe to a PTO and Brock Matheson (former Kanata Stallion) to an ATO.

Coulombe is not a NCAA player. http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=62368

wprager wrote:Bingo signs two NCAA players to PTO/ATO -- could one of them be the one Tim Murray mentioned? I know Bingo and Ottawa are separate entities, but Tim is involved with both. Patrick Coulombe to a PTO and Brock Matheson (former Kanata Stallion) to an ATO.

When B-Sens bring players up from ECHL who don't have a contract with the Sens -- I believe - they sign them to PTO's. Coulombe I believe has been brought up before.. don't know who Matheson is.
When they callup Cowick or Hoffman they don't have to sign PTO's as they are already signed for Bingo.
At least that's how I think it works.

I think Benoit has been recalled.

That was so 4 hrs ago SD