The Toronto Maple Leafs and New York Islanders played one of the most boring hockey games I've ever had the pleasure to sit through on New Year's Eve Day.
The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Islanders 3-1 in a game that could have gone either way. The Leafs allowed a lot of high-danger chances and played pretty bad against a much worse team, and were likely lucky to escape with the victory.
Today marks the third time in just over a week that these two teams play (the first, on December 21st, was won by the Islanders) and weirdly, it's the only three times they will play this year.
Unless, of course, they meet in the playoffs, which they likely won't because the Islanders are extremely unlikely to make them.
Deja Vu? Toronto Maple Leafs vs the (Who Else?) New York Islanders Game Preview
Tonight's game will once again be without Auston Matthews, who is mysteriously injured, and was recently moved to the IR. There remains no timeline on his return, though he did practice with the team this week.
Top goalie Anthony Stolarz remains on the shelf, while Joseph Woll will look to put together a second straight good game after a bit of recent struggle. Pontus Holmberg will miss his second straight game, but Oliver Ekman-Larsson is likely to play.
Ilya Sorokin will start for the Islanders.
The Leafs lineup looks pretty weak with John Tavares at 1C and then the absolute humiliation that is dressing David Kampf at 2C. Brad Treliving presumably is a real person with the ability to make trades, but it's unclear what he's thinking because any normal team would have already acquired a centre by now.
Tavares-Kampf-Domi-Dewar down the middle is pathetic for a pre-season game by an expansion team. The fact that this is the Leafs lineup three months into a season is ridiculous. The Leafs are also dressing Philppe Myers in the top-four, and Ryan Reaves is in the lineup.
With no cap space and Auston Matthews likely to be battling injury for the rest of the season, things look kind of bleak for the Leafs at the moment, but let's not forget that they are in first place and that it's a long season with lots of time for the team to improve their roster.
Still, playing David Kampf on the second line, which means you don't even have a decent AHL prospect to call up is hard to ignore. At least we know if the Leafs don't do well this year we won't have to care about Shanahan and Treliving anymore.