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Senators bring high-powered offense to Toronto

Oct 3, 2007 - 1:09 PM Ottawa (0-0) at Toronto (0-0) 7:30 pm EDT

TORONTO (Ticker) - After lasting just five games in the Stanley Cup Finals, the Ottawa Senators will look to start the 2007-08 campaign on a positive note.

The Senators are eyeing the Stanley Cup again this year as they kick off their season Wednesday against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the regular-season opener for both teams.

The only significant change this offseason in Ottawa occurred behind the bench. Coaching the team is John Paddock, replacing Bryan Murray, who moved up to the front office as the team's general manager.

In Paddock's only experience as an NHL coach, he went 106-138-27 in three seasons with the Winnipeg Jets from 1991-94.

Paddock will have to figure out a way to deal with the loss of defenseman Tom Preissing, who signed with the Los Angeles Kings in the offseason. The 28-year-old Preissing led the team's blue-liners last season with 38 points in 80 games and tied for third in the league with a plus-40 rating.

He will benefit from the return of one of the top lines in the NHL. Dany Heatley, Jason Spezza and Daniel Alfredsson combined to score 113 of the squad's 288 goals last season. They each added 22 points in the postseason, which tied for the league lead.

The Maple Leafs made some significant additions in the offseason. They traded for goaltender Vesa Toskala, who went 26-10-1 with a 2.35 goals-against average and .908 save percentage for the San Jose Sharks last season.

Toskala will have to compete for the starting job with Andrew Raycroft, who went 37-25-9 with a 2.99 GAA and .894 save percentage with Toronto last season. However, the Maple Leafs surrendered first- and second-round picks for Toskala, you do the math to see who has the edge in goal.

Toronto also picked up the services of center Jason Blake, who inked a five-year, $20 million deal after scoring 40 goals with the New York Islanders last season. The free-agent signing gives the Maple Leafs a legitimate scorer to compliment center Mats Sundin, who signed a one-year, $5.5 million deal.

While Ottawa was making its run through the postseason, Toronto was forced to watch from home after missing the playoffs by one point.