Who: Toronto Maple Leafs / Toronto Marlies vs. Philadelphia Flyers / Adirondack Phantoms
What: Pre-season Game #3 for the Leafs (1-1-0 record)
Where: The Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, PA
When: 7:00pm - SNET-O (CA), Versus (US), TSN-PH (Philadelphia)
Why: Because both teams still have a lot of rust and dead weight to shake off before they'll be ready for the start of the regular season in 15 days.
Take the jump for a closer look at tonight's rematch that isn't a rematch.
Expected Leafs Lineup:
Forwards - Colby Armstrong, Darryl Boyce, Tyler Bozak, Luca Caputi, Joe Colborne, Jerry D’Amigo, Philippe Dupuis, Matt Frattin, Ryan Hamilton, Nikolai Kulemin, Greg McKegg, Colton Orr, Jay Rosehill
Defense - Keith Aulie, Cody Franson, Jake Gardiner, Carl Gunnarsson, Korbinian Holzer, Mike Komisarek, Juraj Mikus, Luke Schenn
Goalies - Jonas Gustavsson, Ben Scrivens
Note: The Leafs will need to scratch three players from this list to get to the required 18 skaters for the game.
Expected Flyers Lineup:
Forwards - Andreas Nodl, Danny Briere, Jakub Voracek; Scott Hartnell, Claude Giroux, Tomas Hyka; Max Talbot, Brayden Schenn, Matt Read; Jody Shelley, Blair Betts, Ben Holmstrom
Defense - Kimmo Timonen, Erik Gustafsson, Oskars Bartulis, Braydon Coburn, Kevin Marshall, Andrej Meszaros
Goalies - Ilya Bryzgalov (starter),Johan Backlund
Collectively lacking in anything resembling above average hockey skills, tonight's roster is like a Brian Burke wet dream. More truculence than hockey ability, somehow this list still qualifies for the minimum number of NHL veterans, though those "veterans" are nothing more than 3rd-4th line grinders, 3rd pairing defensemen, Luke Schenn and Nikolai Kulemin. What sort of crime is Nikolai Kulemin guilty of to warrant his inclusion in tonight's game? Hopefully for Kulie, Ron Wilson shows mercy and scratches him for the lineup so he can shake his head in shame from the press box instead of the bench.
Last night, despite the 4-0 score, was actually a pretty good outing for the Leafs defense, giving up only 22 shots. We'll see tonight if this squad can perform just as admirably. And they'd better because it looks like from the roster that Wilson is using tonight's game to figure out his #4-7 defensemen as Aulie, Franson, Komisarek, and Gunnarsson are all in the lineup. I'm expecting Juraj Mikus to be the defensive healthy scratch tonight and Korbinian Holzer to be used sparingly as the other 6 are used in a variety of situations to help Wilson's evaluations.
In between the pipes, it's a tryout for the Leafs backup position between Gustavsson and Scrivens. Both were solid Monday night, only giving up a goal a piece. Right now it's Gustavsson's spot to lose. Scrivens will need to put on a show and hope the Monster flounders if he wishes to start up on the big club.
As always, GO LEAFS GO!
