At the Leafs vs. Blue Jackets match from January 22, Columbus trampled over the hosts to clinch a 5-1 victory. However, that wasn’t the highlight of the match. Instead, it was the bizarre incident involving Auston Matthews and Blue Jackets netminder Elvis Merzlikins in front of the visitors’ goal. During a scuffle, both stars lost their sticks, and the Blue Jackets’ goalie picked up Auston’s to continue with his duties. The Maple Leafs’ star also had to resort to impromptu measures by using Elvis’s gear for a while. “That was a weird exchange. I’ll tell you that,” Craig Berube, Toronto’s head coach, said after the match. But tonight, things got much rougher.

The Toronto Maple Leafs and the Ottawa Senators are clashing in the Stanley Cup postseason for the first time in over two decades. And tonight at the Scotiabank Arena, 27-year-old Auston Matthews showed once again why ‘The Battle of Ontario’ match-up is always a hit among fans, with a hit on an opponent’s stick!

The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta shared highlights from today’s game via an X post on April 20. At one point in the match, the Sens’ Ridly Greig almost huddled into the Leafs’ bench, and Auston Matthews took the opportunity to underscore his heaving emotions. “Greig almost went into the Leafs bench… Matthews grabbed his stick from him and broke it after Greig skated back to the Sens bench,” Pagnotta’s social media update notes.

Perhaps Matthews didn’t like how Greig cross-checked Leafs center John Tavares to the side of the head. And any intention of letting it slide might have gone poof when the initial 5-minute major for the offence was overturned in favor of a 2-minute minor. Moreover, there might have been some residual bad blood from the last time Greig got involved in an altercation with a Leafs player.

Last year, Ridly and Toronto’s Morgan Rielly were at the center of the controversy that erupted in February. The Senators were leading the Leafs 4-3 when, with less than 6 seconds left in the third period, Greig violated an unwritten NHL players’ rule by scoring an empty-netter with a slap-shot. Rielly, otherwise known for his clean plays, wasn’t having any of it and cross-checked the Senators star on the head, getting himself slapped with a 5-match suspension and a hefty fine by the NHL. Reilly’s sentiments, however, were echoed by Matthew later when he said, “I don’t think it’s really necessary to go down there and (do a) hardest shot competition into the net.”

One heck of a track record to work with, right? Right. As the decades-old rivalry resumed its first postseason action after over 20 years, it quickly became clear that Matthews & Co. weren’t going to cede any quarter. The hosts bashed the Senators 6-2, and while Auston didn’t score a goal, he did get two important assists. Mitch Marner kept his goalscoring spree alive with one goal at the Scotiabank Arena tonight. Looking at the stupendous performance put up by the Leafs, one would be hard-pressed to think that they are desperate to make up for the 2024-25 regular season heartbreak, where they lost to Ottawa thrice. But the next few matches will undoubtedly keep the fans on their toes, and the history of this epic rivalry has a knack for accomplishing just that!

Auston Matthews has a legacy to build upon

The Maple Leafs and the Senators have met each other in the postseason four times previously. And in all four of those games, Toronto ran away with the series to advance to the next round, while Ottawa was left tending to its wounds. Unsurprisingly, though, all four of those clashes had some incredible moments that hockey fans will continue to remember for years to come.

In the first battle between the provincial foes in 2000, the Leafs’ Steve Thomas’ clutch performance and the memorable battle between the two goalies signalled a start to a rivalry for the ages. Next year, the two sides met in the first round of the playoffs for the second straight time. And thanks to netminder Curtis Joseph’s incredible performance, Toronto swept the Sens that year as well.

The Battle for Ontario was revived again in 2002, this time in the Eastern Conference semifinals. A controversial hit from behind by Ottawa’s Alfredsson on Toronto’s Darcy Tucker fueled the rivalry, and despite the Sens’ win in Game 5, many hockey connoisseurs weren’t on board with how things went down on the ice. During the regular season in 2004, broken sticks set the stage. Mats Sundin, the Leafs’ then captain, broke his stick during a match and proceeded to toss it over the glass. As a result, Sundin had to serve a one-match suspension, coincidentally enough, in Toronto’s next match against Ottawa.

With their captain out, the Leafs took a hefty 7-1 beating from the Senators, and Alfredsson went ahead to mark the occasion by breaking his own stick and pretending to toss it over the glass. And although later in the postseason, the Senators managed a rare comeback in Game 6 of the first round, the Leafs ended up having the last laugh again. So it’s safe to say that tonight’s antics by Auston Matthews only added to a rather feisty history between the two teams. While there are still many who are skeptical of the Leafs’ captain’s abilities with the puck, one thing’s for sure: Matthews will have to go all-in for the next six games. How do you reckon he will fare? Tell us below.