Ottawa Senators fear ‘Toronto takeover’ in NHL playoff first-round clash with Maple Leafs, claims analyst

We're just a few days away from the Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators renewing the Battle of Ontario rivalry in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The much-hoped-for matchup between the bitter rivals came to fruition as the Leafs clinched the top spot in the Atlantic Division with their 4-0 win in Buffalo on Tuesday night. It will be the first time they meet up in the postseason since 2004, 21 years ago.

Toronto fans are well known for traveling to opposing arenas, including Buffalo, Ottawa, and Detroit, among others. And even though this is the Stanley Cup Playoffs, some believe the same Maple Leafs takeover will still undoubtedly happen in their upcoming first-round series.

NHL analyst Nick Alberga gave his take on what the crowd will look like in Ottawa during the "Leafs Morning Take" on Wednesday. The Leafs Nation shared the clip on X (formerly Twitter).

"I would argue Canadian Tire Centre is gonna be louder in favor of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Like, it's gonna be a Maple Leafs takeover, I guarantee it. And that's the thing, that is the fear of god in Sens Nation right now, that it's gonna be a Toronto takeover, it just is," Alberga said.

It will be interesting to see what the Ottawa Senators attempt to do to keep the Leafs fans from crashing the party in their home barn all series long. We've seen teams in the past make changes to limit road fans from being able to purchase tickets to their playoff games.

The Maple Leafs are favored to beat the Senators

As expected, the Toronto Maple Leafs will enter their first-round series as favorites to beat the Ottawa Senators.

The FanDuel Sportsbook has the Leafs as -176 favorites, while the Senators come in as +142 underdogs. They have also set the over-under amount of games the series will go to at 5.5.

Toronto will look to flip the script after being dominated by Ottawa in their regular-season series. As it always does in the postseason, the results will come down to star players and goaltending.

The schedule for the start of the playoffs has yet to be released; however, reports suggest that Toronto and Ottawa could begin their battle on Sunday. The Leafs do have one final game to play, coming on Thursday night when they host the Detroit Red Wings. The puck drops at Scotiabank Arena at 7 p.m. EST.