Brady Tkachuk wishes fans could choose whether to attend Leafs vs Sens
With the Ottawa Senators set to face the Toronto Maple Leafs on New Year's Day, Sen captain Brady Tkachuk is disappointed there won't be many fans in attendance.
"I wish it was a full crowd for tomorrow's match," said Tkachuk during media availability on Friday. "I know the province has put in rules to keep people safe ... It sucks. I just wish they gave people the choice on the decision to come to games instead of just kind of taking it away."
As it stands right now, both the Leafs and Sens are limited to a maximum of 1000 people in the building for games after new regulations announced by the Province of Ontario in an attempt to curb the spread of COVID-19. Ontario has seen record high numbers of new cases since the Omicron variant came about, although it appears the number of overall hospitalizations is down compared to the number of people testing positive. These new rules are expected to be in effect for at least three weeks.
The Leafs have already announced the team will not be postponing any further games and will forge ahead with attendance severely limited. Sens coach DJ Smith said he fully expects the game to go ahead at Scotiabank Arena on January 1st. The Senators have several players in COVID protocol, but Smith says all you can do is try to make it work.
"You're going to have to win with rosters you may not want them to be," he said.
| G | A | PTS | ||
| Kyle Connor | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Alex Tuch | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Owen Power | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Michael Bunting | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Drew Helleson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jirí Kulich | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Isac Lundestrom | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Vladislav Namestnikov | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Nino Niederreiter | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Gabriel Vilardi | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jason Zucker | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Leo Carlsson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Nikolaj Ehlers | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ross Johnston | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Evgeni Malkin | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Josh Morrissey | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Cole Perfetti | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Bryan Rust | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Mark Scheifele | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Trevor Zegras | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Complete stats | ||||
| STANDINGS 2024-2025 | ||||||
TOP 10 | GP | W | L | OL | PTS | |
Jets | 20 | 17 | 3 | - | 34 | |
Wild | 19 | 13 | 3 | 3 | 29 | |
Hurricanes | 19 | 14 | 5 | - | 28 | |
Devils | 22 | 13 | 7 | 2 | 28 | |
Capitals | 19 | 13 | 5 | 1 | 27 | |
Golden Knights | 20 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 26 | |
Maple Leafs | 20 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 26 | |
Rangers | 18 | 12 | 5 | 1 | 25 | |
Panthers | 20 | 12 | 7 | 1 | 25 | |
Flames | 20 | 11 | 6 | 3 | 25 | |
| Conference | Cumulative | ||||||