Even in the heart of the Christmas holidays, a Saturday matchup in the Battle of Ontario will rarely be a Silent Night.
The Ottawa Senators are in Toronto to face the Maple Leafs for the first meaningful get-together since Toronto defeated the Sens in six games during last spring’s Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The game will mark a pair of milestones for the Senators. Veteran Claude Giroux will play in his 1,300th career game, while hot on his heels, just 1,299 behind, is Xavier Bourgault, who finally suits up for his first NHL game.
Bourgault was called up from the Belleville Senators on Saturday morning. He's had a fine start to his AHL season with 27 points in 32 games, which is more than he had all of last season when he put up 26 points in 61 games.
As for Giroux, gigantic round numbers like 1,300 will always conjure up discussions about Hall of Fame candidacy. With 372 goals and 1,141 points, his numbers are already reminiscent of Daniel Alfredsson's, and given that he's on pace for over 50 points this season, G doesn't look at all like a player ready to retire.
The Senators enter the day just one point behind the Florida Panthers for the final Eastern wild card spot and just two points behind the Tampa Bay Lightning for third place in the Atlantic.
Things are a bit more dire for the Leafs. They enter play with 37 points, five out of the wild card and six out of third place in the East.
Going back two years to the day, the Sens have had the Leafs' number in the regular season, winning the last five regular-season meetings.
Toronto's veneer of confidence began to crack this week when they fired assistant coach Mark Savard and replaced him days later with another former NHL star in Steve Sullivan. Savard ran Toronto's power play, which was shockingly bad (and still is), ranking dead last in the NHL. Ottawa's power play is now fourth-best in the league.
Here's how Travis Green and Craig Berube will align their chess pieces on Saturday.
Senators projected lineup
Brady Tkachuk -- Tim Stutzle -- Fabian Zetterlund
David Perron -- Dylan Cozens -- Drake Batherson
Michael Amadio -- Ridly Greig -- Claude Giroux
Xavier Bourgault -- Stephen Halliday -- Nick Cousins
Jake Sanderson -- Artem Zub
Thomas Chabot -- Jordan Spence
Nick Jensen -- Nikolas Matinpalo
Linus Ullmark
Leevi Merilainen
Maple Leafs projected lineup
Bobby McMann -- Auston Matthews -- Max Domi
Matias Maccelli -- John Tavares -- William Nylander
Dakota Joshua -- Scott Laughton -- Steven Lorentz
Mathew Knies -- Nicolas Roy -- Nicholas Robertson
Morgan Rielly -- Philippe Myers
Jake McCabe -- Troy Stecher
Oliver Ekman-Larsson -- Chris Tanev
Joseph Woll
Dennis Hildeby
By Steve Warne
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Steve Warne is the Ottawa Senators site editor at The Hockey News. Steve has covered the Senators since day one, first as Sports Director for Rogers Radio in Ottawa on AM 1310 and FM 105, then as the long-time host of the morning show at TSN 1200 radio, the Sens' flagship station. Steve is also the owner and host of the popular Sens Nation Podcast.
Follow Steve on Twitter/X @stevewarnemedia