This the first game day open thread. If you want to comment you can create an account with a valid e-mail and you As with all of the pre-season games they are available only on LeafsTV. Tonight the puck drops at 9pm with the pre-game on at 830pm.
Here are the lines for the Leafs:
Forwards
Alexei Ponikarovsky - Kyle Wellwood - Darcy Tucker
Jeremy Williams - Matt Stajan - Simon Gamache
Jiri Tlusty - Chad Kilger - Tony Salmelainen
Wade Belak - Kris Newbury - Ben Ondrus
Defence
Bryan McCabe - Carlo Colaiacovo
Tomas Kaberle - Bryan Muir
Jay Harrison - Derek Walser
Justin Pogge will get the full game as the Leafs play Wednesday night in Winnipeg and Thursday night in Toronto. He'll have to be in top form to stop the vaunted Oilers offence.
For the Oilers thoughts and reaction check out The Battle of Alberta, Covered in Oil, or Lowetide. There is lots of good writing and a healthy dislike for God's Team which comes as no surprise as so many contributors to the Oilers' blogs live in Toronto.
Of course, there's nothing like getting mocked by a team whose Cup drought stands at two decades and whose playoff history since 1990 (aside from a miracle run that thankfully ended in failure) has consisted of either missing the playoffs or being sacrificial lambs to the Avs and Stars.
Update:
The players that get to say that they lost the first game to the Leafs on their march to the Cup are as follows:
Raffi Torres - Jarret Stoll - Robert Nilsson
Geoff Sanderson - Andrew Cogliano - Marc Pouliot
Slava Trukhno - Shawn Horcoff - Anson Carter
Adam Huxley - Jonas Almtorp - Zack Stortini
Ladislav Smid - Matt Greene
Danny Syvret - Steve Staios
Denis Grebeshkov - Mathieu Roy
Mathieu Garon (starting goaltender)
Devan Dubnyk (will play second half)
With such a stacked lineup it will be great to get an early look at one of the Leafs' possible opponents in the final. Where's Souray? Obviously he doesn't want to be on the Highlight of the Night this early in the year.