The Toronto Maple Leafs have so far played four pre-season games.
Weirdly, two of those games were on the same day, where the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Ottawa Senators once and lost once.
Then they beat the Senators again, then the other night, they played, and beat, the Habs.
A 3-1 record is nice and all, but no one cares about the pre-season record.
What we do care about is the story lines, the action, who is scoring, and what news gets made. So let’s check in on it.
The Toronto Maple Leafs Training Camp Storyline Update
The biggest news, I think at least, has been that both Matt Murray and Ilya Samsonov have been incredible. You’ll never go broke betting on the egos of professional athletes, and in a league where goalies are essentially random, you could do a lot worse than pitting two formerly successful goalies against each other.
The second biggest story has been the injuries, but since its early, these are really just opportunities for the team to learn about their fringe players. John Tavares and Timothy Liljegren are worrisome, however. Those are two key players you’d rather not have missing games.
Rasmus Sandin made it to his first practice. Though the idea that missing training camp is going to ruin a player’s season is likely overblown to the point of being a superstition, there is no doubt that it’s a good thing he’s here anyways.
Enter Sandman
— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) October 2, 2022
Newly-signed Rasmus Sandin set for his first practice of Leafs camp pic.twitter.com/bMpMNbNOeh
It is still a mystery what six defenseman will play when the Leafs are fully healthy, but Sandin is easily one of their five best (along with Rielly, Giordano and Liljegren) and should play somewhere every night.
Pierre Engvall also returned to practice after missing time with a foot injury. Not sure if he’s game ready, but at least he’s skating. Engvall is an extremely valuable member of this team, and his ability to completely shutdown top lines along with David Kampf, and what that means to this team, cannot be oversold.
Morgan Rielly is taking some practice laps on the right side of the ice, while Mitch Marner is also playing some D. Both developments are welcome and interesting, but at this time, merely curiosities.
The Leafs haven’t made a major round of cuts, and as far as I know, the only player who has been cut is Ty Voit, who wasn’t even originally invited to camp but was actually a fill-in for injury.
They are set to open the Marlies camp tomorrow, so cuts should be coming sometime today and we’ll update accordingly.