The Toronto Maple Leafs have their two final preseason games tonight in a split squad matchup against the Ottawa Senators. They will have a home and away game, that will have good combination of NHL and AHL players, similar to their first two games against the Montreal Canadiens on this past Saturday night.
These games with be the final test for some of the fringe players on the roster to get a chance to make the lineup. There are players like Bo Groulx, who has a real chance of making the opening night roster as the 13th forward, especially with the core injury that Dakota Joshua is dealing with. It should also be noted that Easton Cowan, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Artur Akhtyamov joined the main group and will be playing at home. Which begs the question: is Hiller going to make some tough roster decisions?
Split-squad game 1 in Toronto
Matthew Knies - Auston Matthews - Jack Roslovic
Gavin McKenna - John Tavares - William Nylander
Easton Cowan - Nick Paul - Colton Sissons
Michael Pezzetta - Bo Groulx - Zack MacEwen
Jake McCabe - Chris Tanev
Morgan Rielly - Darren Raddysh
Oliver Ekman-Larsson - Stecher
Sergei Bobrovsky
Artur Akhtyamov
Senators lineup
Andre Burakovsky - Tim Stutzle - Drake Batherson
Michael Amadio - Shane Pinto - Philip Tomasino
Patterson - Philippe Daoust - Hayden Hodgson
Lucas Elinas - Eskild Bakke Olsen - Kasper Halttunen
Tyler Kleven - Carter Yakemhuk
Bolduc - Nicolas Matinpalo
Scott Harrington - Christian Kyrou
Gabriel Eliasson
Leevi Merilainen
Jackson Parsons
Split-squad game 2 in Ottawa
At this time, there is no projected lines for the game in Ottawa tonight. However, they have released the lineup that is making the trip.
Forwards
#73 Teddy Blueger
#90 Brendan Brisson
#24 Brandon Duhaime
#37 Luke Haymes
#98 Miroslav Holinka
#33 Tinus Luc Koblar
#71 Vinni Lettieri
#18 Steven Lorentz
#26 Jacob Quillan
#54 Henrik Rybinski
#42 Landon Sim
#77 Ryan Tverberg
Defence
#55 Emil Andrae
#3 Nick Blankenburg
#58 Noah Chadwick
#38 Ben Danford
#51 Philippe Myers
#83 Marshall Rifai
#59 Blake Smith
Goalies
#80 Ken Appleby
#31 Samuel Hlavaj
#41 Anthony Stolarz
Senators lineup
William Eklund - Dylan Cozens - Fabian Zetterlund
Nick Cousins - Stephan Halliday - Claude Giroux
Sammy Blais - Ridley Greig - Tyler Boucher
Drake Montgomery - Ryan Suzuki - Xavier Bourgault
Thomas Chabot - Hoyt Stanley
Ben Hutton - Cameron Crotty
Tomas Hamara - Djibril Toure
Matthew Andonovski
Linus Ullmark
Samuel Ersson
What to watch for in both games
There are a few things to watch for in these two games. As mentioned above, the Maple Leafs have promoted Ekman-Larsson, Cowan and Akhtyamov to the main group. The stand out is Akhtyamov, who clearly has made an impression on the coaching staff enough to give him a look with the A squad.
The other thing that is worth noting is the pairing of Raddysh and Rielly. It has been mentioned already by Jim Hiller that they are going to get a ton of offesnive zone starts. Which should bring out the best in them as a paring. Especially when you take into consideration that most, if not all of those zone starts will come with the top-six.
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