After putting in a dominating performance at the Bell Centre, one of the most historic rivalries in the sport heads back to the Scotiabank Centre in Toronto for some preseason action.
The Toronto Maple Leafs dismantled the Montreal Canadiens with a weaker lineup by a score of 7-2 on Thursday and now the roles are reversed. At home, the Leafs are going to be icing a competitive lineup and it's basically some young players and the Laval Rocket for Saturday night. Head coach Craig Berube is giving the night off for a couple of Toronto's top prospects but there's still some battles to be won.
When: 7:00 p.m. ET
Where: Scotiabank Arena
TV: Sportsnet
Projected lineups
Toronto Maple Leafs
Calle Jarnkrok – John Tavares – William Nylander
Matthew Knies –Max Domi – Nicholas Robertson
Dakota Joshua – Nicolas Roy – Mattias Maccelli
Michael Pezzetta – Jacob Quillan – Borya Valis
Jake McCabe – Chris Tanev
Morgan Rielly – Brandon Carlo
Olivier Ekman-Larsson – Matt Benning
Anthony Stolarz
(Artur Akhtyamov)
Montreal Canadiens
Zachary Bolduc – Alex Newhook – Olivier Kapanen
Sammy Blais – Joe Veleno – Owen Beck
Sean Farrell – Alex Belzile – Tyler Thorpe
Laurent Dauphin – Lucas Condotta – Riley Kidney
Arber Xhekaj – Alexandre Carrier
Jayden Struble – Lane Hutson
Marc Del Gaizo – Adam Engstrom
Kaapo Kahkonen
(Jacob Fowler)
Players to watch
Max Domi
After going a couple practices as Auston Matthews' second winger, Domi now takes back control at centre, with potential regular linemate Matthew Knies and Nick Robertson having a massive opportunity next to the two top-end offensive forwards. While we probably won't see Domi play much down the middle this season barring any injuries, it will be interesting to see how he handles it Saturday night in Toronto. Can he build some chemistry with Knies to really make that projected trio pop to start the season? Or will there be a mismatch and raise some questions about the possibility of those three working well together?
Anthony Stolarz
He is only facing a Canadiens group that features roughly zero top-six forwards and just one good defenseman in Lane Hutson, but that doesn't mean Anthony Stolarz won't be tested. With the news that Joseph Woll is taking a leave of absence from the team and James Reimer coming in on a professional try-out, the pressure is on Stolarz to really take a whole lot of the workload. He will probably get at least 80% of the starts while Woll is absent, and depending on how long that lasts for, he could already see his appearances get up there. Which, of course is questionable since he played just 34 games last season.
Arber Xhekaj
He'll fight someone.