Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Toronto Maple Leafs
When: 7:00 PM ET, Saturday, December 17, 2016
Where: Air Canada Centre, Toronto, Ontario

TV: 7 p.m. ET, ROOT (Pittsburgh), CBC (Toronto)
PREDICTION: Penguins 5, Maple Leafs 3

TORONTO — The Pittsburgh Penguins had their seven-game winning streak stopped Friday night when they lost 1-0 in overtime to the Los Angeles Kings.

The Stanley Cup champions will try to start a new streak Saturday night at Air Canada Centre when they play the Toronto Maple Leafs, who have one win in their past seven games.

The Maple Leafs have lost their past two games by 3-2 scores in shootouts with the San Jose Sharks and the Arizona Coyotes.

Another streak ended for the Penguins on Friday — Sydney Crosby’s nine-game point streak. He leads the NHL with 21 goals and has points in 20 of 25 games this season.

Matt Murray made his fifth consecutive start for the Penguins on Friday and had 27 saves.

“They did a good job of packing it in and kept us to the outside for the most part, but we played really well,” Murray said. “It was just one of those nights.”

The Penguins picked up another injury on their defense. They already are without Kris Letang for about two weeks with a lower body injury incurred against the Boston Bruins on Wednesday. Derrick Pouliot was recalled from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton to take Letang’s spot.

The Penguins lost defenseman Trevor Daley to an upper-body injury in the second period on Friday and he was still being evaluated.

Brian Dumoulin was hit by a puck in the cheek in the third period but was able to return.

“Those are two guys we need, and who play a lot of minutes,” Dumoulin said of Letang and Daley.

Pouliot had played one game against the Sharks earlier this season and played more than 18 minutes on Friday.

“I thought he did a real nice job,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “He kept his game simple. I thought he played within himself. He was playing with confidence. He used his mobility out there. I thought he had a strong game for his first game back.”

Maple Leafs center Nazem Kadri will be trying to stop Crosby.

“I don’t think our game plan is to come out, have a shootout and trade chances,” Kadri said. “That’s not going to work in our favor. We have to be patient, we have to be defensively in sync.”

The Maple Leafs have made a change in their backup goaltender for the game Saturday. They have recalled Jhonas Enroth from the Marlies and loaned Antoine Bibeau to the AHL club.

Enroth had cleared waivers recently before being assigned to the Marlies and Bibeau played well in a loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday. Enroth made 24 saves in a 5-3 win over Hartford Dec. 10 in his only start for the Marlies. He has a 3.94 goals-against average in four starts for Toronto.

The Maple Leafs learned Friday that they will be without defenseman Martin Marincin for four to six weeks. He suffered a lower-body injury in the win over the Bruins in Boston on Saturday when he went hard into the boards.

The first diagnosis was that the injury was not serious, coach Mike Babcock said, but his condition did not improve. Frank Corrado, who has seldom played, might be the replacement for Marincin.

The Maple Leafs know what they need to do to get back to winning.

“We play well with the puck, we have to learn better to play without it,” goaltender Frederik Andersen said.

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Colorado Avalanche vs. Toronto Maple Leafs
When: 7:00 PM ET, Sunday, December 11, 2016
Where: Air Canada Centre, Toronto, Ontario

TV: 7 p.m. ET, Altitude (Colorado), Sportsnet (Toronto)
PREDICTION: Maple Leafs 4, Avalanche 2

TORONTO — The Colorado Avalanche can only improve after they lost 10-1 Saturday night to the Montreal Canadiens.

They will not have long to linger on the humiliation. They play the Toronto Maple Leafs Sunday night at the Air Canada Centre.

The Maple Leafs come home on a high after defeating the Bruins in Boston 4-1 on Saturday night.

It was only the third win on the road this season (3-6-5) for the Maple Leafs. They also ended a three-game losing streak.

“I never thought much about that, it was just winning the game and we feel we’ve been getting better,” Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock said about improving on the road. “The last three games the first period kind of did us in, we didn’t start on time and it was nice to see that we started, we were able to hold on. It wasn’t the start we wanted but we didn’t give up the goals, not because we had any, but because the guys battled. And then we were able to execute a little bit.”

The Avalanche were down 5-0 only 8:41 into the game in Montreal.

“Tough to describe,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “I’m going to take the blame for that one because we weren’t prepared to start the game. They’re the best team in the league with the best record at home and we’re all the way down in the standings and we weren’t prepared to play. So that one’s on me. … If you have one or two players who don’t show up, then that’s on them. When you don’t have the whole team show up, then that’s on me.”

The Avalanche (10-15-1) are 1-2-0 on a four-game road trip that ends Sunday in Toronto. They are 1-6-1 in their past eight games. Colorado defeated the Bruins on Thursday.

Colorado’s starting goaltender Calvin Pickard three goals on 10 shots Saturday before being replaced by Semyon Varlamov, who allowed six goals on 16 shots through the end of the second period.

“If you look at the mistakes we made the way we were playing, it was inevitable,” Bednar said. “We pulled Pick to maybe try to spark our team. That didn’t work. So we put him back in. He had a good third.”

The Maple Leafs, meanwhile, had good goaltending again Saturday from Frederik Anderson.

“Our first period, we didn’t do anything,” Babcock said. “We didn’t win any battles, we didn’t skate. I thought we were way better in the second — we skated and had much more of the play. In the third period obviously it was great to get the win. (Andersen) played real well, especially early in the game, for us. He gave them the one there at the end of the second but was able to battle hard in the third.”

The Maple Leafs (11-10-5), who were outshot 33-20, escaped the first period with a 0-0 tie and outscored the Bruins 2-1 in the second period.

“Freddy made some big saves in the first to keep it a game and we kind of picked up our game as the game went on,” said James van Riemsdyk ,who scored his 12th goal of the season. “I thought the third period was our best period. I think we moved the puck around and tried to make plays towards the net and get them compressed towards the net to get those second chances.”

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Minnesota Wild vs. Toronto Maple Leafs
When: 7:30 PM ET, Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Where: Air Canada Centre, Toronto, Ontario

TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, FSN North (Minnesota), Sportsnet
PREDICTION: Maple Leafs 5, Wild 3

Oddsmakers currently have the Wild listed as 105-moneyline favorites versus the Maple Leafs, while the game’s total is sitting at 5½.

TORONTO — The Toronto Maple Leafs return home from a three-game road trip on Wednesday at the Air Canada Centre when they face the Minnesota Wild, who will be wrapping up a five-game trip of their own.

Toronto finished its trip 1-1-1 and Minnesota is 1-1-2 on its tour. Both teams defeated the Edmonton Oilers on their trips.

The Maple Leafs (10-9-5) have been at their best at home (8-3-0) and Wild coach Bruce Boudreau, who was born in Toronto and once played with the Leafs, has noticed.

“I’ve watched their home games, and when they’re on, you’d better be ready to play,” Boudreau said Tuesday. “They’re going to be very good, very soon. It’s not going to take too long for these guys to be extremely good.”

The Wild (12-8-4) has held its own in road games, going 5-5-4. When the trip ends Wednesday the Wild will have played five more games on the road than at home.

Boudreau does not want his team to suffer a letdown in its last game of a long trip.

“I hope it doesn’t happen in this city,” he said. “I have enough trouble winning in Toronto (4-5-3 as a coach and 0-3-1 in the past four visits) when I come, so I hope we’re ready to play. We’re coming off a pretty good win in Edmonton (2-1 in overtime on Sunday) and we’d like to continue this because then we’ll have a good stretch at home.”

The key for the Wild is the goaltender of Devan Dubnyk, who leads the NHL with a save percentage of .945 and in shutouts with four and is second in goals-against average at 1.63.

“He has given us a chance every night,” Boudreau said. “He’s been spectacular.”

The Maple Leafs are pleased with their starting goaltender, Frederik Andersen, who played for Boudreau with the Anaheim Ducks, but are searching for a reliable backup.

They have taken a step in this direction by clearing goaltender Jhonas Enroth through waivers and assigning him to the Marlies of the AHL.

Called up from the Marlies was up 22-year-old prospect Antoine Bibeau, who will back up Anderson on Wednesday.

The long-term solution appears to be Karri Ramo, the former Calgary Flames goaltender, who has been cleared to play after recovering from a knee injury and has signed a tryout contract with the Marlies.

Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock would like to be able to give Andersen more games off than Enroth enabled him to get with his lack of performance.

“I think we’ve given (Andersen) a pretty good workload at this point,” Babcock said. “He’s played 21 games. We’d like the backup to play 20 games.”

The highest number of games in which Andersen has played in one season is 54 in 2014-15.

“I remember playing up to about 20 games straight,” Andersen said. “That was a good learning curve, playing every night and getting used to that workload both mentally and physically. There are so many different mindsets — playing every night, playing now and then. You’ve got to be able to switch your mindset every night and be ready for every shot.”

Andersen struggled in his first few games of this season and had some sympathy for Enroth, who lost his job after four starts.

“I didn’t get in a groove for my first four or five starts,” Andersen said. “For him, it was tough. But you have to make the best of it. He’s a good guy to have around.”

With the Marlies, Bibeau is 6-5-5 with a 2.54 goals-against average and a .907 save percentage.

Maple Leafs center Nazem Kadri did not skate with the team Tuesday because he was ill. Center Peter Holland was not at the workout either as he awaits a trade.

Minnesota has reassigned right winger Zack Mitchell and defenseman Gustav Olofsson to the Iowa Wild of the AHL.

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Toronto Maple Leafs vs Calgary Flames
When: 8:30 PM ET, Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Where: Scotiabank Saddledome, Calgary, Alberta

CALGARY, Alberta — Following their longest road trip of the season, the Calgary Flames start a three-game homestand Wednesday when they host the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Although they lost 2-1 in overtime to the New York Islanders on Monday, the Flames (10-13-2) finished their six-game road trip a respectable 3-2-1.

Those three wins are as many as the Flames have recorded at the Scotiabank Saddledome — they have a league-worst 3-7 record on home ice — which is something that Calgary captain Mark Giordano said has to improve.

“We’ve got to get some big wins at home,” said Giordano, whose team also hosts the Minnesota Wild on Friday and the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday. “We haven’t been good enough at home.”

The Flames get several chances to improve their home record over the coming weeks as they play six of their next eight and seven of their next 11 games in Calgary.

“We have to be positive coming back home here,” said goaltender Brian Elliott, who made 25 saves to help the Flames salvage a point against the Islanders.

Sean Monahan also has some positives to build upon as he snapped out of a five-game goalless drought in New York by scoring his sixth goal of the season in the third period.

“It’s nice to put one in there, but at the end of the day we’re here for the two points and we got one out of it,” Monahan said. “We’re got to find a way to get the job done. Unfortunately we didn’t, but we’ve got to bounce back here at home.”

Calgary coach Glen Gulutzan was happy to see Monahan finally find the back of the net and he’s hoping the 22-year-old center can build off of it.

“I think that’ll be a little bit of a weight off his shoulders,” Gulutzan said. “You know how goal scorers are. They can be streaky and I think that was a big goal for him.”

While the Flames have to improve at home, the same can be said for what the Maple Leafs need to accomplish on the road.

After a 4-2 victory over the Oilers in Edmonton on Tuesday night, the Leafs (10-8-4) have a 2-5-4 road record.

“It probably wasn’t our prettiest win, but we’re very happy to kick this road trip off with two points,” defenseman Morgan Rielly told reporters following the win, which snapped Toronto’s three-game losing streak away from the friendly confines of the Air Canada Centre, where they boast an impressive 8-3-0 mark.

Despite his squad’s sub-.500 record on the road, Rielly was eagerly anticipating Toronto’s trip out west to play the Oilers, Flames and Vancouver Canucks, who they’ll face Saturday at Rogers Arena.

“I just really look forward to it,” Rielly told the Toronto Star. “When the league releases our schedule, that’s the first thing I look for — when we go out west. It’s home. I spent a fair bit of time on the Prairies.”

Rielly hails from Vancouver and played three seasons for the Moose Jaw Warriors of the Western Hockey League before turning pro in 2013.

“I like going on the road in general,” Rielly said. “We have a chance to play some huge games on the road, try to get some points and improve our road record.”

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The Toronto Maple Leafs announced the hiring of Babcock on Wednesday afternoon, ending months of speculation as to where the veteran coach would land. Babcock will be introduced at a news conference scheduled for Thursday.

Babcock cashed in on his status as the most coveted hire in hockey. According to multiple reports, he received an eight-year deal that is worth a whopping $50 million. That contract would make Babcock the highest-paid coach in the NHL.

Though Babcock was under contract with Detroit through June 30, the Red Wings granted their coach permission to speak to other teams on May 8.

By hiring Babcock, the Leafs must send a third-round pick to Detroit as compensation.

In selecting Toronto, Babcock leaves a Red Wings franchise that had reached the playoffs for an NHL-leading 24 consecutive seasons to a team that has struggled competitively. Toronto missed the playoffs last season for the ninth time in 10 years.

The Maple Leafs have also not won a Stanley Cup since 1967, a season before the NHL expanded from its original six franchises. The Red Wings, by comparison, have won the championship four times since 1997.

The 52-year-old also coached Canada to Olympic gold medals in 2010 and ’14.

Since 2005-06, Mike Babcock’s Red Wings had the highest points percentage while the Leafs ranked 26th. Toronto has not won a playoff series since the 2004 conference quarterfinals.

He brings stability and a high-profile face to a franchise that is on its fourth full-time coach since Paul Maurice took over in 2006.

The Maple Leafs had a vacancy after Randy Carlyle was fired in January. He had been replaced on an interim basis by assistant Peter Horachek.

Babcock’s decision comes as a slight surprise, given that he indicated last week that he hated losing and wanted to be part of a team that had an opportunity to win immediately.

The Maple Leafs have an overpriced and aging roster, as well as questions at goaltending. The team unraveled last season. After holding a 19-9-3 record in mid-December, Toronto closed the season going 11-35-8 to finish 15th in the 16-team Eastern Conference standings.

On the bright side, Babcock is reunited with Brendan Shanahan, who took over as the Maple Leafs president last year. Shanahan played for Babcock in Detroit.

Landing Babcock is a major coup for Shanahan, who in the past 13 months since taking over as president has fired general manager Dave Nonis, coach Carlyle, interim Horachek and several assistants and scouts.

“I’m proud of Shanny, I’m proud that he dreamt big,” Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment President and CEO Tim Leiweke said. “He got the big whale. …

“It should give everyone great hope about the future of this organization. Mike Babcock is a phenomenal coach, and I think we’re really lucky to get him.”

Before deciding on the Leafs, Babcock had been in discussions with several other teams, including the San Jose Sharks and Buffalo Sabres. The Sharks were informed Tuesday night that they were out of the running, while the Sabres received word Wednesday morning, club sources told ESPN.com’s Pierre LeBrun.
Mike Babcock is trading one Original Six franchise for another, leaving Detroit for Toronto. Jeff Vinnick/Getty Images

Though Babcock had discussions with Red Wings general manager Ken Holland about signing a contract extension in Detroit, he ultimately chose to leave the organization with which he had spent the past 10 seasons. Detroit’s final offer was believed to be around $4 million per year, a source told LeBrun.

Holland told reporters that Babcock called at 11:15 a.m. ET on Wednesday to inform Holland of his decision. Holland added he harbored no ill feelings toward Babcock and thanked him for 10 great years.

“My offers last June were a four-year term. Again in January, it was a four-year term,” Holland said. “As we sat yesterday morning, I said, ‘Mike, the best I can do is five years.’ When you’ve been in the same city as long as I have, and as long as Mike has, you don’t get much longer term than four and five years. So I think that certainly part of the decision-making process probably for Mike was the amount of term that he could get in Toronto.”

With Babcock leaving Detroit, Holland said that Jeff Blashill, the team’s AHL coach in Grand Rapids, is a leading candidate to succeed Babcock behind the bench. Holland added that his short list of candidates included two or three names. Blashill has led the Grand Rapids Griffins to the Western Conference finals of the Calder Cup playoffs for the second time in three years.

The Red Wings have been protective in regard to keeping Blashill. In allowing Babcock to test the market, Holland prevented Blashill from interviewing with other teams.

Babcock began his NHL head-coaching career with a flourish in 2002-03, when he took Anaheim to within one win of a Stanley Cup title. He began coaching the Red Wings after the lockout that wiped out the 2004-05 season.

Babcock was the first coach to win at least 50 games in each of his first four seasons with an NHL team — a deceiving stat in the shootout era but an impressive one nonetheless — when he did it with the Red Wings. With 458 wins for Detroit, he ranks No. 1 on the franchise’s career list, ahead of luminaries like Scott Bowman and Jack Adams.

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Ottawa at Toronto
When: 7:30 PM ET, Sunday, April 5, 2015
Where: Air Canada Centre, Toronto, Ontario
TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, City, TVA
PREDICTION: Maple Leafs 3, Senators 2
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Oddsmakers currently have the Senators listed as 200-moneyline favorites versus the Maple Leafs, while the game’s total is sitting at 5½.

In their last action, Toronto was a 2-1 loser on the road against the Bruins. Bettors on Boston at -295 on the moneyline collected their winnings from that game, while the total score (3) sent UNDER bettors home happy as well.

Toronto wasted a sensational performance by James Reimer, who made 49 saves in Saturday’s 2-1 shootout loss in Boston and has turned aside 89-of-91 shots in his last two starts. Jonathan Bernier should be back in net attempting to halt a string of seven straight defeats, including a 4-3 setback at Buffalo on Wednesday in which the Maple Leafs coughed up a two-goal lead. The Maple Leafs, who have dropped 23-of-24 on the road, will be going for their first three-game home winning streak since Dec. 13-16.

Team record: 29-43-7
Toronto is 2-9 SU in its last 11 games
The total has gone UNDER in 7 of Toronto’s last 10 games
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Toronto’s last 5 games at home
Toronto is 11-4 SU in its last 15 games when playing Ottawa

In their last action, Ottawa was a 4-3 winner at home against the Capitals. Bettors on Ottawa at -125 on the moneyline collected their winnings from that game, while the total score (7) sent OVER bettors home happy as well.

Ottawa continued its penchant for dramatic victories with its second straight overtime win, this coming courtesy of Kyle Turris’ breakaway tally after the Senators blew a three-goal lead. Stone has scored three times in the last five games to boost his season total to 21 while former Maple Leaf Clarke MacArthur has points in four of five contests since returning from a stint of nearly six weeks on the disabled list. Captain Erik Karlsson collected a pair of assists Saturday to give him 14 points in his last 13 games.

Team record: 40-26-12
Current Streak: won 3 straight games.
Ottawa is 18-5 SU in its last 23 games
The total has gone OVER in 7 of Ottawa’s last 9 games
Ottawa is 5-1 SU in its last 6 games on the road
The total has gone UNDER in 9 of Ottawa’s last 13 games on the road

The post Ottawa vs. Toronto Preview appeared first on IdealCapper.

Kadri accompanied the Maple Leafs on Friday to Calgary, where he was to sit out a third consecutive game since he missed a team meeting on Sunday.

Kadri said before Friday night’s game against the Flames that he was ”humiliated,” but added that he has learned from the ordeal.

”Of course I’m embarrassed about it,” the 24-year-old center said. ”Lesson learned, and that’s how I’m going to approach it. I’m a little bit humiliated but besides that it was a lesson learned and something you can look to as making yourself a better person.

”It’s a lesson that couldn’t be more clear at this point in time.”

The Maple Leafs made Kadri a healthy scratch Monday for their game against the New York Islanders. On that day, he said he had apologized to teammates and coaches for what he called an ”uncharacteristic” mistake.

But on Wednesday, Maple Leafs President Brendan Shanahan extended Kadri’s suspension for two games, saying that Kadri’s problems went beyond being late for the meeting on Sunday.

”It’s time for him to start making better decisions,” Shanahan said Wednesday.

He added on Wednesday that Kadri would be available to play Saturday at Vancouver ”if things go well.”

Kadri said Friday he had no ”ill feelings” toward the Maple Leafs.

”I put the blame on myself and understand I have to bring out a better level of expectation in terms of professionalism,” he said. ”But other than that, all I can worry about right now is the future moving forward.”

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Boston’s leading goal scorer during the regular season scored his first of the postseason with 4:20 left in the first overtime and the Bruins beat the New York Rangers 3-2 on Thursday night in the first playoff game in 40 years between the Original Six teams.

“It’s always frustrating” not to score, Marchand said, “but there’s so many other areas of the game. It’s always nice to get the first one and you hope you just keep going.”

The win was Boston’s third straight in overtime, and New York’s third straight loss in extra time.

“I thought it was pretty even going into the overtime,” Rangers coach John Tortorella said. “But we got spanked in the overtime.”

Both teams advanced with Game 7 victories Monday night. The Rangers beat the Washington Capitals 5-0 behind Henrik Lundqvist’s second consecutive shutout. The Bruins overcame a three-goal deficit with 11 minutes left in regulation and beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-4 on Patrice Bergeron’s goal in overtime.

“I really thought our guys turned the page on that historical game,” Bruins coach Claude Julien said.

Marchand scored on a pass from Bergeron. Marchand had carried the puck up the right side, passed it to Bergeron and kept going toward the net. Bergeron passed across the slot and Marchand tipped it past Lundqvist from the left side of the crease.

“I told Marchand when we were pretty close to each other on the wall to go backdoor,” Bergeron said. “It was good to see him score because I thought he had some pretty good looks tonight.”

Boston outshot New York 16-5 in overtime.

“I kind of knew he was coming in the middle, but I was just too locked in on the puck,” Lundqvist said. “Sooner or later when you face a lot of chances like that, you’re going to make a mistake.”

The Bruins carried the play throughout overtime. They applied constant pressure, but couldn’t score during a power play when Derek Dorsett was penalized for interference at 2:20 of overtime.

Boston nearly won in regulation, but Johnny Boychuk’s shot from the right point clanged off the left post with one-tenth of a second remaining. Then he hit the left post at the other end of the ice at 6:34 of overtime.

Zdeno Chara gave Boston a 1-0 lead at 12:23 of the second before Ryan McDonagh tied it with 1.3 seconds left in the period. Derek Stepan put the Rangers ahead 2-1 just 14 seconds into the third period, and Torey Krug tied it on a power play with his first NHL goal in four career games.

“For his first goal, he couldn’t have asked for better timing,” Julien said.

Game 2 of the best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinals is Sunday night in Boston.

On Thursday, the Bruins played without three injured veteran defensemen: Andrew Ference, Dennis Seidenberg and Wade Redden. Three rookies started on defense: Dougie Hamilton, Matt Bartkowski and Krug, who was called up from Providence of the AHL after Seidenberg was hurt early in the first period Monday night.

The Bruins ended Lundqvist’s shutout streak at 152 minutes, 23 seconds when he gave up a Chara’s soft goal. Lundqvist appeared to have a good view of the 50-foot slap shot from just in front of the middle of the blue line and got a piece of the puck, but it trickled by him.

That lead nearly held up through the second period. But when Boychuk passed it from in front of his net to Tyler Seguin in the right circle, Rick Nash hit Sequin’s stick and the puck went to McDonagh at the left point.

McDonagh’s rising slap shot soared over the right arm of goalie Tuukka Rask. Stepan then made it 2-1 on a 30-foot shot from the slot through Rask’s legs, two goals in 15.3 seconds.

Krug tied the game with teammate David Krejci in front of the net trying to screen Lundqvist. The shot from just inside the top of the left circle went under Lundqvist’s left arm.

Then Marchand beat Lundqvist to win in the extra session.

“It was a tough overtime period for us. They came hard,” Lundqvist said. “My record is terrible in overtime, but I’ve just got to stick with it, play my game and hopefully it’ll turn around.”

Game notes

Stepan’s goal was the sixth against the Bruins in the first two minutes of a period in their eight playoff games. … The teams last met in the playoffs in 1973 when the Rangers won the first-round series in five games. The previous year, they faced each other in the Stanley Cup finals, and the Bruins won in six. … Both teams’ leading goal scorers in the regular season had no goals in eight playoff games heading in. New York’s Nash stretched that unwanted string to nine, but Marchand’s goal won the game. . … Boston’s Jaromir Jagr, a former Ranger, is the only player on either team who had been born the last time the teams met in the playoffs on April 10, 1973.

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The 22-year-old from London, Ontario, scored on a one-timer against Ottawa’s Ben Bishop at 4:48 of the third period to complete his hat trick. Resumption of play was delayed as hats littered the ice and chants of “KA-DRI” broke out.

“Leafs Nation is everywhere,” Kadri said. “We obviously appreciate the support and want to give back as much as we can. To see everyone, especially at the start of the game with that ‘Go Leafs Go’ chant, and to hear it throughout the whole building, it kind of got everyone going. We took advantage of that.”

Joffrey Lupul scored and added three assists for the Leafs, who have won three in a row and continued an eight-game point streak.

Bishop made 19 saves for the Senators, who were coming off a 3-0 shutout over the New York Rangers on Thursday.

“We thought it was going to be a lot closer,” Senators forward Zack Smith said. “We’re used to playing tight games.

“It was 4-0 but I don’t think it was a 4-0 game. We had a lot of chances, just maybe not the quality third and fourth chances that we’re used to scoring on.”

The Leafs led 1-0 after the first period and 2-0 after the second.

“I think we had a great start, and that’s one of the things we’ve been focusing on. Any time you can get a decent start on the road, it puts more pressure on the home team to perform,” Toronto coach Randy Carlyle said.

The first of Kadri’s goals came at 12:45 of the second after a giveaway as Senators forward Jakob Silfverberg tried to clear the puck, but instead gave it right to Lupul leading to a 2-on-0 break in front of Bishop. Lupul fed a pass to Kadri at the side of the goal and he put the puck into a wide-open net.

Lupul took advantage of another Senators’ giveaway to set up Kadri again for the game’s final goal.

The Senators appeared to score in the third period as Erik Condra tucked a loose puck in from beside the post, but the referee had blown the play dead.

Senators coach Paul MacLean said whether it was in or not was irrelevant as they didn’t score any others. When asked what went wrong for his team, MacLean said giveaways would be a good place to start.

“Two of them right in front of your net in the third period makes it kind of hard for your goaltender to save you,” MacLean said. “That little bug-a-boo that we’ve had in the past about execution in came back to bite us.

“I don’t know if Toronto had better puck luck than we did, but at the end of the day they ended up playing better than we did and they win.”

The second period produced just one goal, by Kadri on a delayed penalty call. There were also just four minutes in penalties, two delay of game calls against the Leafs, which was a stark contrast to the first period.

The opening 20 minutes also produced a single goal, a power-play effort from Lupul, but there were 40 minutes in penalties, including six fighting majors.

Ottawa’s Matt Kassian was the busiest player in the opening period as he took on both Colton Orr and Frazer McLaren in fights.

“They put the puck in the net and we didn’t. Reimer made some good saves and they got a couple bounces that helped them out too, but we just weren’t good enough from the drop of the puck and they wanted it more,” Kassian said.

“I don’t think we got pushed around or got dominated physically. We just got outworked, outskilled and outplayed. That’s the bottom line.”

The Leafs also held an 11-5 edge in shots over the opening 20 minutes, but the Senators turned the table in that department during the second period as they outshot the Leafs 12-6 in the second.

Ottawa held a 31-23 advantage in shots overall.

Game notes

Clarke MacArthur and Jake Gardiner were scratches for Toronto. Mike Lundin and Peter Regin were the Sens’ healthy scratches for the second straight game. … Going into Saturday, the Leafs led the NHL in hits with 1,143, blocked shots with 590 and fighting majors 34, a number they increased by three in the first period. … The Senators remain just one of four teams (New York Islanders, Los Angeles Kings, Minnesota Wild) that have yet to allow a short-handed goal this season. … The loss was just the third in regulation on home ice for the Senators in 19 games this season.

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Dion Phaneuf, Tyler Bozak and Nikolai Kulemin also scored for Toronto. Kadri’s three points tied a career high, and he had a chance at a fourth point but was hauled down in front of the goal by Teddy Purcell midway through the third period.

Rookies Radko Gudas and Cory Conacher scored for Tampa Bay in the third, spoiling James Reimer’s shutout attempt.

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