The Montreal Canadiens and Ottawa Senators' fanbases hardly need another reason to argue on social media, but they may have found it with the emergence of two rookie goaltenders. It has been a long list of bouts on the fight card for the fans this season, and all of them have been a knock em' out, drag em' down affair.
It started with the battle of which teams were going to come out of the rebuild faster, which looked like a runaway victory for the Senators at the start of the year, but has slowly gone in the direction of the Canadiens over the past few weeks.
The second battle was the one of who had the brighter future between Jake Sanderson and Lane Hutson. The Senators fans made fun of Hutson's ability to create plenty of highlights of him skating around the attacking zone but not doing much else and shared screenshots of Sanderson's stat line next to Hutson's. However, that is another battle that has gone the way of the Canadiens recently.
Well, just as the rivalry started to shift in the Canadiens' direction, there was a new battle to pick with the emergence of a rookie goaltender for each team. Jakub Dobes has been lights out since joining the Habs, owning a 0.97 goals-against average and a .959 save percentage.
However, Leevi Merilainen has also been a bright spot for the Senators recently, owning a 4-2-0 record, 2.34 goals-against average, and a .913 save percentage. He also won games on back-to-back nights for the Senators with his win over the Dallas Stars on Sunday.
The win over the Stars will sting a little extra for the Canadiens' fanbase, as it was a team that Montreal failed to beat on Saturday night. It'll be a little ammunition that the Senators ended the Stars' winning streak, something the Canadiens could not do.
So, where do the social media battles land us on January 13? The Senators have a 21-18-3 record, while the Canadiens are a point behind with a 20-18-4 mark. The teams and their fanbases can argue about how their team is much better, but there isn't as much separating them as they may think.
The Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins are the Canadiens' historical rivals. However, as the Senators and Canadiens exit their rebuild, these franchises will have plenty of battles when their young stars enter their primes.