John Tavares doubtful for Toronto Maple Leafs Home Opener
The Toronto Maple Leafs vs the Pittsburgh Penguins
The 1-1 Toronto Maple Leafs will take on the Pittsburgh Penguins tonight at the ACC for their 2024-25 Home opener.
The Toronto Maple Leafs lost their first game of the year, despite a 47 shot effort that bordered on being a complete domination, to the league's worst team, the Montreal Canadiens.
The Leafs hit four goal posts and could have complained about being unlucky if they had scored six times, but they actually didn't score and were shut-out for the first time in over 200 games. In fact, the Leafs were not shut-out a single time while Sheldon Keefe was their coach.
Against New Jersey (and Sheldon Keefe) on Thursday, the Leafs were lucky to escape with a win, and took full advantage of shaky New Jersey goaltending to secure a victory.
Tonight they will take on Sidney Crosby and the Penguins, possibly without John Tavares who missed this morning's practice.
John Tavares doubtful for Toronto Maple Leafs Home Opener
The Leafs will start Anthony Stolarz in net. Joseph Woll is ineligible to play because he's on the IR until at least Wednesday, but he has not skated since he was injured. For those who are confused, Woll is spelled W-O-L-L, not L-U-P-U-L. Could have fooled me!
The Penguins will be starting Joel Blomqvist, a guy I have never heard of until I looked up who they were going to start. Blomqvist is a 2nd round pick of the Penguins who made and won his NHL debut the other night after the Penguins were destroyed 6-0 in their opener.
For tonight's game, hopefully the Leafs will insert Timothy Liljegren into the lineup, but it's not looking good. The Leafs have been inexplicably scratching one of their best defenseman, which is both incredibly stupid and extremely frustrating.
Trade rumours are circulating, and hopefully the Leafs smarten up, but at this point I think most Leafs fans are resigned to Liljegren being traded for next to nothing then becoming the next Devon Toews or Gustav Forsling on whichever team is smart enough to scoop him up.
One assumes that the Leafs will once against dress the hilariously bad Simon Benoit/Conor Timmins pairing. It also looks like Ryan Reaves, who shouldn't even be in the NHL, let alone on a contender, is going to draw back into the lineup.
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The Penguins are a team the Leafs should crush, and the fact that Matthews, Marner and Nylander have been quiet so far is not good for whoever this Blomqvist character is. Expect the Leafs to impress tonight, scoring frequently and often.