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The Toronto Maple Leafs are hoping to string 60 minutes together in the first edition of the Battle of Ontario against the Ottawa Senators at Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday, something that has been difficult for them to do for most of this season.
With the exception of perhaps the wins over Washington and Dallas last month, the club has put together stretches of impressive play, but that has either been preceded or followed by puzzlingly bad performances.
The Leafs rebounded from a three-goal first-period deficit against Tampa Bay to win 6-5 in overtime on Monday, and other than starting Joseph Woll in goal instead of Ilya Samsonov, head coach Sheldon Keefe is going with the same lineup against the Sens.
Matthew Knies, who scored a goal and two assists and went +4 on Monday, will be alongside Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner, John Tavares will skate with Tyler Bertuzzi and William Nylander, Max Domi will stay up the middle with Nick Robertson and Calle Jarnkrok, and David Kampf centers the fourth line with Noah Gregor and Ryan Reaves, and the defensive pairings of Morgan Rielly – TJ Brodie, Mark Giordano - John Klingberg, and William Lagesson – Simon Benoit remain intact.
Jake McCabe and Conor Timmins both skated with the club, but Keefe indicated that McCabe would not play and that Timmins would not be back before the club travels to Sweden next week.
I wouldn’t say he is close at this point. It depends on how you describe close, I guess. He will come with us to Sweden and start to ramp up in practices there.” Keefe said. “I don’t think there is a plan for him to play anytime soon or on that trip, but that is when you will start to see him. Today’s morning skate is not a real practice. He is not ready for full practice yet, but that is the next step for him next week.”
The Sens are 4-6-0 and are still reeling from center Shane Pinto’s 41-game suspension and being penalized a future first-round pick for the Evgeny Dadonov no-trade incident, which led to the firing of longtime GM Pierre Dorion. Ottawa did not hold a skate on Wednesday in Toronto, so it is unknown whether Joonas Korpisalo or Anton Forsberg will start.
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • 
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