Toronto Maple Leafs: ‘Six Straight’ Has a Nice Ring to It
The Toronto Maple Leafs are looking for their sixth straight win tonight.
Yes, I know it’s only preseason, but would you rather be a Montreal Canadiens fan or a Toronto Maple Leafs fan right now?
Also, I’m not one to believe in jinxing or anything like that, so I’m not too worried about calling it too soon or something along those lines.
If they do lose, you’re free to blame me, I just hope you won’t (knock on wood).
That was a joke, everyone chill.
Okay, the Leafs were unable to beat the Ottawa Senators in their first two games as that rivalry seems to be heating up lately, but since then, the Leafs have been unstoppable.
Everyone’s been chipping in, defense, offense, goaltending, it’s been a great preseason, but it is only the preseason.
Need I remind you, the Leafs have had decent exhibition records in recent memory and then went on to have horrendous regular seasons, only really improving their golf swing in the end.
A good record before the regular season is good, but it doesn’t mean a whole lot, that’s my disclaimer for what it’s worth.
I digress, let’s take a look back at their preseason.
Quick Look
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The scoring continues as the Leafs have outscored their opponents 23-17, case in point, the Canadiens have only scored 12 goals through seven preseason games.
Both Auston Matthews and William Nylander lead the Leafs in points with seven, the former of the two leading the team in goals with five.
Even Patrick Marleau has looked sharp despite him usually coming into new seasons slightly cold, he’s been able to rack up two goals.
This year’s training camp/preseason has been a battle, as predicted, which means players have been going full tilt to earn a spot.
As the Leafs wind down with their final game tonight, Mike Babcock will have one final look at a few options to round out the roster for opening night on October 4 in Winnipeg.
I think, for the most part, we all have a pretty solid idea of who’s going to be suiting up for the start of the regular season, but we are talking about the Leafs after all.
Who really knows?
Lines
Here are the projected lines.
Josh Lievo – Miro Aaltonen – Kasperi Kapanen
Colin Greening – Ben Smith – Carl Grundstrom
Nikita Soshnikov – Eric Fehr – Andreas Johnsson
Trevor Moore – Chris Mueller – Kerby Rychel
Travis Dermott – Roman Polak
Andrew Nielsen – Connor Carrick
Vincent LoVerde – Timothy Liljegren
Curtis McElhinney
Garret Sparks
In my opinion, Dominic Moore not being in the lineup could mean one or two things.
One, he’s not being looked at anymore for the fourth line center spot that’s up for grabs (doubt that), or two, it’s his and Babcock doesn’t want to risk injury.
That same idea could possibly be applicable to Calle Rosen too.
A couple other points of interest are that Polak’s in the lineup, as promised by Babcock (not me, I got that wrong), and so is Liljegren.
We’re still awaiting the final word on where Liljegren will play this upcoming season, in Sweden which seems unlikely or in North American, either for the Toronto Marlies or the Leafs.
The latter being pretty far-fetched, but don’t cross anything out.