Maple Leafs vs Senators: Marchenko High-Stick, Six Posts Sink Toronto 3-2

Maple Leafs vs Senators: what happened on Saturday

The Maple Leafs vs Senators season opener for Ottawa went the Senators' way, 3-2, on Oct. 3 at Scotiabank Arena. Stephen Halliday broke a 2-2 tie at 9:46 of the third period, jamming in a rebound at the side of the net just as Toronto finished killing a Kirill Marchenko high-sticking minor. Linus Ullmark made 27 saves, and Thomas Chabot had a goal and an assist in his first game as Ottawa's captain.

Auston Matthews and Marchenko scored for Toronto, both for the first time this season, and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 26 of 29 shots. The loss drops the Leafs to 1-2-0. All three of their games have been decided by one goal, both losses have come at home against Atlantic Division rivals, and Toronto has scored exactly two goals in each of them.

The frustrating part is that this was, for long stretches, the best the Leafs have looked under Jim Hiller. They controlled the second period, hit iron repeatedly and still walked away with nothing.

How the scoring went

The game flipped three times, and every Ottawa goal came at a moment when Toronto had either just pushed or was just about to. The table below lays out the scoring sequence from the NHL's official recap.

TimeTeamScorerHow it happened1st, 18:52OttawaThomas ChabotRebound after a Shane Pinto shot was deflected by Claude Giroux2nd, 0:33TorontoAuston MatthewsDeflection of a Morgan Rielly point shot in the slot2nd, 7:06TorontoKirill Marchenko (PP)Backhand past Ullmark's blocker off a Darren Raddysh feed2nd, 12:40OttawaMichael AmadioTip of a Tim Stutzle pass on a 2-on-13rd, 9:46OttawaStephen HallidayRebound of a Fabian Zetterlund shot as a penalty expired

Chabot's goal, with 68 seconds left in the first, was the kind that stings in an opener: a deflected shot, a loose puck, a defender who got there first. Matthews answered 33 seconds into the second, and Marchenko put Toronto ahead on the power play 6:33 later. That was the high point of the night.

Amadio's tying goal came out of nothing. Stutzle lifted a pass over a sprawling Rielly on a 2-on-1, and Amadio redirected it past Bobrovsky at the side of the net. It was one of only four Ottawa shots in the period.

A dominant second period, wasted

The shot clock tells the story of the middle frame. Toronto outshot Ottawa 14-4 in the second, according to Maple Leafs Hot Stove's game review, and five-on-five shot attempts in the period were 21-4. The Leafs Nation reported that Toronto outshot Ottawa 24-13 through two periods and held about 72 per cent of the five-on-five expected goals over that stretch.

That is the version of this team Hiller has been asking for since camp: pace through the neutral zone, pucks recovered in the offensive end, the defence activating. Rielly's point shot on the Matthews goal and Raddysh's pass on the Marchenko goal were both products of the defence joining the attack. The top line of Marchenko, Matthews and Jack Roslovic had its best game of the young season, a point Editor in Leaf also made in its takeaways.

And yet the period ended tied. After the game, Hiller said he did not love making excuses but that somebody had told him the Leafs hit six or seven posts or crossbars, per Maple Leafs Hot Stove. He also said the team had enough chances to win. Both statements are true. Neither changes the standings.

The third period, and the penalty that turned it

Toronto's third period was the opposite of its second. Ottawa outshot the Leafs 16-5 in the final 20 minutes, according to Editor in Leaf, and the shift came through the penalty box.

At 7:46 of the third, Marchenko was called for high-sticking Stutzle. The Leafs killed the two minutes, but Ottawa's possession during the kill kept Toronto pinned, and Halliday buried the rebound of Zetterlund's shot from the left face-off dot just as the penalty expired. Easton Cowan was also called for high-sticking later in the period, the second of the two third-period minors Hiller singled out.

Hiller called the two third-period penalties "really gross" and said they took Toronto's momentum away and gave Ottawa life, per The Leafs Nation. Asked specifically about Marchenko's, he said he had not looked at it closely, that it was a stick battle and a penalty, and that is just the way it works. Marchenko was less sure. "Actually, I don't see anything," he said of the call, as reported by The Hockey News. Matthews took the middle road, saying the officials see what they see in a quick game but that the Leafs "could definitely do a better job just with our sticks."

LeafsLurker's view: Matthews is right, and so is Hiller. Whether or not the Stutzle call was soft, two high-sticking minors in a tied third period of a divisional game is a habit problem, not a refereeing problem. Toronto had the better of the play for 40 minutes. It handed Ottawa four minutes of power-play time in the period that decided the game.

Marchenko's first game in miniature

Marchenko's night captured the entire trade in one game. He scored his first goal as a Leaf, a smart backhand after stepping into the slot off Raddysh's pass. He was on the ice with the top line during Toronto's best stretch of hockey this season. And he took the penalty that set up the winner.

He also arrived in Toronto less than a week ago. The Leafs acquired him from Columbus on Sept. 29 in the deal that sent Matthew Knies the other way, and he played his debut against Montreal before he had a full practice with his new team. We broke down that first game in Marchenko's eight-attempt debut. Hiller has dropped him straight onto the first power-play unit with Matthews, John Tavares, William Nylander and Raddysh, and that unit finally scored on Saturday. The Leafs went 1-for-4 with the man advantage.

The bigger context is money. Marchenko carries a $3.85 million cap hit this season, and a six-year extension at $12.5 million per season starts in 2027-28, as laid out on our Maple Leafs contracts page and in our breakdown of what the $12.5 million does to the cap. At that price, he will be judged on nights like this one: the goal is the job, and so is staying out of the box in the third.

Bobrovsky, the second line and what else stood out

Bobrovsky was good. He made 26 saves, and none of the three goals were the kind a goaltender is expected to stop: a rebound off a deflection, a tip on a 2-on-1 and a jam play at the side of the net during sustained pressure. Through two starts he has 47 saves on 53 shots, which is not a number to celebrate, but Saturday was a better performance than his line suggests.

The second line of Gavin McKenna, Tavares and Nylander stayed together after Hiller defended it on Friday. That line was badly out-attempted by the Islanders on Sept. 30, which we argued in our case for swapping McKenna and Cowan, and it did not produce at even strength against Ottawa either. Cowan, meanwhile, has been one of Toronto's most consistent skaters through three games, though his third-period high-sticking minor was not his best moment.

Then there was the Daniel Alfredsson subplot. The Senators' all-time leading scorer was behind Toronto's bench for a regular-season game against his old team for the first time, a story we previewed in Alfredsson vs. the Senators. He leaves the night 0-1.

What's next for the Leafs

Toronto hosts the Nashville Predators on Tuesday, Oct. 6 at 7 p.m., the last home game before a three-game western trip to Vegas on Oct. 8, Colorado on Oct. 10 and Utah on Oct. 13. The Vegas stop means another look at Mitch Marner, now with the Golden Knights.

Three games is too small a sample to panic about, and the underlying play on Saturday was better than in either earlier game. But the pattern is worth naming: two goals every night, one-goal margins every night, and a team that cannot yet afford to give anything away. Toronto controlled 40 minutes against Ottawa and lost because of 20. The fix is not complicated. Keep the sticks down, keep the second-period structure, and let the posts start going the other way.

You can follow how the early results move the Atlantic on our NHL standings page.