Matthews and Tanev Speak Out Ahead of Highly Anticipated Battle of Ontario

The Battle of Ontario, a rivalry between Ottawa and Toronto that has gripped fans attention and excitement for decades, is going to be potentially the most intense and heated first round, and while it's a nice change of pace from facing Florida or Boston; things aren't going to be easy still.

There's first timers everywhere, with Anthony Stolarz making his first career playoff start, and Brady Tkachuk making his first career appearance in the postseason and a slew of other players who haven't even sniffed a future beyond the regular season, so expect them to be hungry and motivated.

Two players who have been to the playoffs several times before are Auston Matthews and Chris Tanev.

115 combined games between the pair has to give Toronto a bit of a leg up compared to the Senators lineup, and heading into the series both gave their thoughts on the clash.

Tanev understood the importance of the series, and getting to play in a series with such history, he's not only ready but excited:

While there may be a bit of an argument over where the true Mecca of hockey is, there's no arguing the Maple Leafs are the NHL's most profitable and prominent franchise and there's going to be no shortage of craziness not only inside Scotiabank Arena, but throughout the entire core of Toronto.

Matthews was more gracious towards his opponents and while he is certainly looking forward to the series, there's no time for them to lose focus:

Both men certainly have put in great seasons in order to help Toronto get to where they are.

Matthews, though scoring less, finished with 78 points in 67 games (33G, 45A) while playing much more defensively for Craig Berube; he missed 15 games earlier this season so that total easily could have been higher had he not been dealing with some injuries.

Tanev, in his first season with the Maple Leafs, has been outstanding.

Expected to add some much needed shutdown defense, his pairing up with Jake McCabe has led the two to be one of the NHL's best duos though McCabe is injured currently.

In 75 games, Tanev recorded 18 points (3G, 15A) but where he truly shined was on the back end. He had 189 blocks for an average of 2.5 per game; a huge improvement for Toronto compared to last year's defenders.

It looks like both Tanev and Matthews are not only excited, but ready and focused for whatever comes their way, and hopefully at the end of it all they can do what they haven't done for 58 years.

Win.