The Toronto Maple Leafs are a perfect 2-0 so far this pre-season, with back to back 4-1 wins over the Ottawa Senators.  Now we all know the jokes that we can easily make about those Senators teams being of AHL, ECHL, or even the dreaded SPHL quality, but I’ll refrain from things like that. It’s an insult to the SPHL. So after the Maple Leafs defeated the LNAH Senators twice they now have a much harder challenge: The almost rebuilt Buffalo Sabres.

Preseason game #3
Buffalo Sabres at Toronto Maple Leafs
7:30PM - Scotiabank Arena
TV: Sportsnet One
Radio: TSN1050
Other SBN blog: Die by the Blade

Tonight the good people in the SBA will gets to see John Tavares and Mitch Marner together again - in their first game together they each scored three points, and Mitch Marner looked like he was ready to move up to another level - but what we are all expecting to see is the debut of everyone’s favourite new draft pick, Semyon Der-Arguchintsev.

He survived the first round of cuts that sent most junior-aged players down to Marlies camp, but hasn’t seen the ice in a game since taking warm ups in game #2.  He should be able to get into tonight’s game, since after Tavares and Nazem Kadri there’s no other centres to write home about:

Updated, to add:

Other than SDA, we may get the pairing of Rasmus Sandin and Timothy Liljegren, which was a beautiful pair to watch. We’re also getting Garret Sparks vs Curtis McElhinney round two tonight. One hasn’t outshone the other yet, so the back up job is still Curtis’ to lose.

The Sabres are bussing to Toronto today after their morning skate, so as of now, we have this guess as a lineup:

Sam Reinhart, an RFA, signed a two year contract on Wednesday so we had expected he might make his debut in this game.

Speaking of RFA’s no, William Nylander still hasn’t signed as of writing this preview. Yes we all want him signed, no I wouldn’t want to play pre-season games either, but he’s missing the chance to line up against his brother.

You might think we aren’t getting the battle of the Rasmuses, Rasmii? But if the Sabres ice Rasmus Asplund, we’re good. Also on the ice should be Lawrence Pilut, who played with Pierre Engvall last year.

The game is at the ACC, and tickets are available, but they start at $72 so, just watch this one at home, eh?

We’ll update you with the Sabres lineup once we have the official word, and some time to figure out who these guys are.

Game Coverage