What your favorite Battle of Ontario moment says about you

With less than a week to go before the playoffs start, there remains a good possibility that we’re going to see a series between the Maple Leafs and Senators. That would be a great matchup – one of the best possible – and would feature two underdog teams that few expected to be in the playoffs at all.

But more importantly, it would mark the resumption of the Battle of Ontario, the rivalry that dominated the province for a good stretch of the pre-lockout years, and continued to simmer after that even though one of the teams decided not to make the playoffs anymore. It was a great rivalry, one that alternated between dramatic playoff showdowns, legitimate bad blood, and goofy “Wait, did that really just happen?” scenes.

But which Battle of Ontario moment is your favourite? And more importantly, what does that choice say about you as a person? Let’s find out, as we run through 12 of the most memorable moments in the rivalry’s history.

Moment No. 1: Daniel Alfredsson’s hit from behind on Darcy Tucker

A rarely acknowledged fact about the Battle of Ontario is that it didn't always involve all that much bad blood. In 2000 and 2001, the two teams hadn't built up much in the way of animosity, and the matchups felt like more a geographic novelty than a real rivalry. Even the two fan bases largely got along.

But it's not hard to pinpoint the exact moment that changed. It came in the final minutes of game five of the 2002 matchup between the two teams, with both the game and the series knotted at 2–2.

You really couldn't draw up a better playoff controversy. Tucker was a divisive player, beloved as a gritty warrior in Toronto but viewed as a pest and diver by Sens fans. Meanwhile, Alfredsson was considered a virtual saint in Ottawa, but the moment transformed him into the rivalry's arch-villain in the eyes of Leaf fans.

Having Alfredsson escape a penalty for drilling Tucker into the boards was near-perfect; having the Senators' captain score the winning goal seconds later was downright diabolical.

What it says about you: You are a Senators fan, and there's a 90–per cent chance you remember this moment more fondly than your wedding day or the birth of your children.

Moment No. 2: Ricard Persson boards Tie Domi

Domi was front and centre throughout the rivalry's heyday, and normally anything that left him bloodied would be just fine with Ottawa fans. But that wasn't the case in game six of the teams' 2002 second-round matchup, when a hit from behind worked against the Senators just two days after Alfredsson flattened Tucker.

The Senators were looking to close out the series on home ice, and had jumped out to an early 2–0 lead that Leafs coach Pat Quinn later admitted had him worried the final might end up being 10–0. Ottawa fans were already breaking out the mocking "goodbye" chant. That's when Persson decided to drill Domi from behind, cutting the Leafs' enforcer and earning a five-minute major.

The Leafs scored twice on the power play, and went on to win the game 4–3. The two teams headed back to Toronto, where the Senators went out meekly with a 3–0 loss.

The hit led to one of the rivalry's most memorable quotes, when Alfredsson told reporters that they'd be going on to the next round "if Domi had better balance".

What it says about you: You're a Leafs fan, and your life goal is to someday meet Domi and personally thank him for not having better balance.

Moment No. 3 The first shootout

When the NHL emerged from the year-long lockout that killed the 2004–05 season, it was with a full slate of 15 opening-night games on Oct. 5, 2005. But only one, featuring the Leafs and Senators in Toronto, went to a shootout, marking the first time in league history that the tie-breaker gimmick made an appearance.

Alfredsson got the honours of taking the first shot and scoring the first goal. Three current Hall of Famers were involved in Dominik Hasek, Ed Belfour and Eric Lindros. Dany Heatley ended it by scoring the first-ever shootout winner. And yet somehow, the most memorable moment from the whole thing has become Jason Allison's slow-motion attempt, which is rumoured to still be going on to this day.

What it says about you: You still think the shootout is cool. Hi there, Mr. Bettman, thanks for reading.

>> Read the full post at Sportsnet

Does slumping right before the playoffs matter? It didn't for these teams

With just days until the end of the regular season, several playoff-bound teams are fading down the stretch. The Sharks have been struggling for a month. The Wild, even longer. The Senators have gone cold over the last two weeks, and the Rangers still don't seem quite right.

But does any of that matter?

You'd obviously rather win than lose, and the Senators and Sharks still have seeding to worry about. But all four teams are making the playoffs. Once they get there, will going in cold hurt their chances?

Not necessarily. NHL history features plenty of examples of teams that seemed like they were heading into the postseason without any momentum, only to flip the switch and go on a long run. So today, let's see if we can calm some nerves around the league with a look back at five examples from the cap era of teams stumbling across the regular season finish line, then doing just fine once the playoffs started.

2010 – Philadelphia Flyers

Down the stretch: After a March 13 win over the Blackhawks, the Flyers were comfortably holding down a playoff spot, sitting seven points up on the ninth-place Rangers with 15 games to play. But they dropped a game in MSG the next night, and won just five games the rest of the way. That slump included a five-game losing streak, and saw the Flyers nearly fall out of the playoffs altogether. Only a shootout win over the Rangers on the season's final day earned the Flyers a spot.

But then: After backing into the playoffs, not many gave the Flyers much of a shot against the second-seeded Devils. But they pulled off the upset in five, then continued all the way to the final, where the lost to the Blackhawks in the case of the disappearing OT winner. Their Cup dreams may have fallen two games short, but it wasn't a bad run for a team that very nearly slumped their way right out of the playoffs altogether.

>> Read the full post at The Hockey News

How the concussion lawsuit could threaten the NHL's future

The NHL is having a rough few months. They just announced that they won’t be going to the Olympics, even though their fans and players want them to. They have franchises in trouble. Everybody seems to be complaining about the playoff format. Their new expansion team just got overshadowed by a bigger league. This year’s playoff race has turned into a bust, with basically all the spots wrapped up before the final weekend. And it’s already sounding like the next lockout is all but inevitable.

And believe it or not, none of that comes close to being the league’s biggest problem right now.

That’s because the league is facing a major threat in the form of a lawsuit over its handling of concussions. The slow-moving suit has been winding its way through the courts for a few years now, and there’s no immediate end in sight. But some recent developments have pushed it back onto the front page. And it hasn’t been a good look for the NHL.

So what exactly is this lawsuit, and what does it mean for the NHL?

It’s a complicated issue with a lot of moving parts, but at a high level, this is about former NHL players who say they suffered concussions during their playing days, whether the league and its teams did enough to ensure player safety at the time, and what sort of responsibility (if any) the league should have to those players today.

Much of this resolves around a degenerative disease called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. Most experts agree that CTE is related to a history of concussions and brain injuries, and can lead to all sorts of symptoms late in life, including dementia, aggression, depression and suicidal thoughts. Some of the stories of former athletes living with symptoms are gut-wrenching.

A growing list of former NHL players are suing the league, claiming that they suffered concussions during their careers – in some cases, multiple untreated concussions. Some players claim they’re already experiencing CTE-like problems, while others are concerned that they’ll face them in the future. The list began with 10 players filing suit in 2010; that list quickly grew to over a hundred. The case is now a class action suit, meaning it could include any ex-player who was suffering from concussion-related problems.

As often happens, this case has moved slowly. But we recently found out that a judge told the parties last year that she wants the case to go to trial in 2017, in some form or another.

>> Read the full post at The Guardian

Ranking the ten best first-round matchups we could see

We’re down to five days left in the regular season, and it’s starting to look like we could be in for an anticlimactic finish. Most of the playoff spots are spoken for, the individual scoring races are pretty much set, and only one division title is really still in play.

But for fans, there’s still something important to keep an eye on: the first-round matchups. Let’s face it: The opening round of the playoffs is pretty much the best time of the entire year, as we get a firehose of high-intensity hockey for two straight weeks.

That’s especially true when we get great matchups. So today, let’s look at the best first-round pairings that are still realistically in play. We’ll define “realistic” as 25 per cent or better, using the odds as calculated by Sports Club Stats.

Unfortunately, that rules out series like Leafs/Habs or Capitals/Penguins, which will have to wait for round two. But it still leaves us with plenty of potential matchups to get excited about, and we’ll break them down here.

No. 10: Capitals vs. Bruins (37.5%)

Contender status: Excellent on one side, as the Capitals will probably win the Presidents' Trophy. The Bruins, not so much, although there are still some numbers-oriented types who think they're underrated.

Rivalry factor: Minimal, although they did meet in the playoffs five years ago in what turned out to be a great series.

Potential storylines: With apologies to whoever the Caps end up playing, most of the focus in their opening round will be on Washington. Is this the year they can finally shake off all that baggage and win a Cup? Or is there another heart-breaking collapse right around the corner?

Bottom line: None of the potential Capitals matchups really jump out at you; they'll almost certainly end up getting the second wild card, which will be an Atlantic crossover team. That could still make for a decent series, but if you're looking for a can't-miss Capitals matchup, you'll probably have to wait for round two.

Random clip to get you fired up: Joel Ward's game-seven winner knocks out the defending-champion Bruins in 2012. If this goal happened today, the replay review for goalie interference would last roughly three days.

No. 9: Sharks vs. Oilers (52.6%)

Contender status: Not bad. The Sharks looked like the Pacific favourite a month ago, but they've been fading ever since. On the other hand, the Oilers are red hot, and have entered sneaky dark-horse territory.

Rivalry factor: Minimal. They've met in the playoffs once before, but that was 11 years ago.

Potential storylines: This would be the classic matchup between two good teams headed in opposite directions. The Sharks are the valiant veterans, trying to claw their way to one more run at the Cup after falling just short last year. They'd be facing a young Oilers team that'll do plenty of winning over the next decade, but may not be quite ready yet. Given where each team is at, the sight of a baby-faced Connor McDavid taking the opening faceoff against Joe Thornton's anthropomorphic beard might be a little too on-the-nose.

On top of that, there's also the Todd McLellan factor, as the Oilers coach would be facing the team that fired him in 2015.

Bottom line: Remember in the 1980s, when the young Oilers had to face the grizzled Islanders to truly learn what it took to win a Stanley Cup? This would be like a watered-down reboot of that concept.

Random clip to get you fired up: Like all great rivalries, this one features a Mike Vernon fight. Sort of. OK, not really. Like I said, the history here isn't all that rich, so we take what we can get.

>> Read the full post at Sportsnet

Weekend wrap: One week to go

One week. That’s all that’s left in the 2016–17 regular season. And with a busy seven days ahead that will see some teams playing as many as five times, it feels like the big picture is starting to come into focus. We don’t have all the answers yet, but we’re getting there.

Let’s start with what we do know.

Out West, the Blackhawks have wrapped up the top seed. The slumping Wild will almost certainly limp into second in the Central, giving them home ice in the first round. And with the Kings officially eliminated last night, we know who the eight playoff teams will be.

In the East, we can pretty much pencil in the Habs as the Atlantic winner, which also means we can go ahead and book them into a first-round matchup with the wild-card Rangers. (They may also finish with more points than New York after all, which should take some of the heat off of the playoff format.) The Capitals have a stranglehold on the Metro after last night's win in Columbus, and that means a first-round showdown between the Blue Jackets and Penguins.

And while we're not there quite yet, we're getting dangerously close to being able to say that we know that the Maple Leafs are going to the playoffs. After last week's brief bout of Frederik Andersen panic, the Leafs won three straight and got their goalie back, and even briefly moved into second place in the Atlantic.

The Senators look reasonably safe, too, although maybe slightly less so than Toronto given their recent struggles and injury issues.

And the Bruins got a huge win yesterday in Chicago, giving them five straight and bumping them past Toronto and Ottawa into second place (although both those teams have two games in hand).

If the Leafs, Senators and Bruins are all in, that leaves all of the Eastern spots accounted for, freezing out the Lightning, Islanders and Hurricanes. All three of those teams are still technically alive, but each would need to virtually run the table in the final week and get help from elsewhere.

At the other end of the standings, we know the Avalanche will have the best odds in the lottery, and that the Golden Knights will slot in at No. 3. The two-spot is still up for grabs, with the Coyotes at risk of losing their grip after last night's win.

As far as individual honours go, Connor McDavid has all but clinched the Art Ross, and Sidney Crosby is closing in on doing the same for the Richard. Auston Matthew hasn't quite wrapped up the rookie goals and points title, but Patrik Laine will need a big game or two to close the gap there, and Erik Karlsson's injury may have closed the door on catching Brent Burns in the blueline points race.

So that's what we know, or are reasonably close to knowing. What's still up in the air this week are most of the first-round matchups, including whether we'll get new chapters in the Battles of Alberta and Ontario.

Home ice in the various two-vs.-three pairings is still a question mark everywhere outside of the Central. The top of the Pacific is a mess. And we still don't know who'll win the Presidents' Trophy, or whether they'll remember to pretend that they care.

With that, let's move on to the power rankings. Last week, we couldn't find anyone who seemed like a good pick at the number five spot, so we settled on the Canadiens almost as a placeholder. Did anyone else do enough to jump up and grab that spot this week?

Road to the Cup

The five teams that look like they're headed towards Stanley Cup–favourite status.

5. Edmonton Oilers (44-25-9, +32 true goals differential*): Huh. Well then. Let's discuss further down below.

4. Columbus Blue Jackets (49-21-8, +59): They've lost five of seven, including two against the Caps and one against the Blackhawks. For a team that can still be hard to picture as truly elite, that hurts.

>> Read the full post at Sportsnet