Toronto Maple Leafs @ Ottawa Senators: Game #2
7:00pm @ Canadian Tire Centre
TV/Streaming: TSN4 (regional), TSN5 (regional)
Opponent’s site: Silver Seven Sens

The Maple Leafs are set to play the second game of their season on the second night of a back-to-back. The team travelled overnight after beating the Montreal Canadiens in the home-opener 2-1. Now, in Ottawa, they are hoping to play spoiler to their home opener. Slight aside, I would kill to see some opponents other than the two Canadian teams within a six hour drive.

Game One Recap: Leafs win the season opener 2-1

The big story before yesterday’s game was the status of Mitch Marner. Luckily, he played and looked fine from a health standpoint. So apart from Auston Matthews and Ilya Mikheyev, the team is healthy and good to go for tonight.

As for the lineup, we didn’t see any lineup adjustments — beyond the creative use of William Nylander in the top six — so the lines and pairs will be the same again tonight. The new third line with Pierre Engvall, David Kämpf, and Ondrej Kaše had a wail of a night and they seem to be really gelling.

One change we might see if Timothy Liljegren making his season debut in place of Travis Dermott as the two fight for that last roster spot. It hasn’t been indicated by Sheldon Keefe that they will be platooned to start, but putting in the fresh guy for the second half of a back-to-back would make sense. The Leafs don’t have any extras on their roster besides Liljegren.

Ha! Just as I was writing this, Shilton tweeted that Liljegren is going to take warmup in Ottawa and potentially play.

In net, expect Petr Mrazek to make his Leafs debut after Jack Campbell started and finished last night. Let’s see how he does.

The Leafs

Forwards
Nick Ritchie - John Tavares - Mitchell Marner
Michael Bunting - Alex Kerfoot - William Nylander
Pierre Engvall - David Kämpf - Ondrej Kaše
Wayne Simmonds - Michael Amadio - Jason Spezza

Defense
Morgan Rielly - TJ Brodie
Jake Muzzin - Justin Holl
Rasmus Sandin - Travis Dermott/Timothy Liljegren

Goalies
Petr Mrázek - confirmed starter
Jack Campbell

The Snes

Brady Tkachuk signed a long-term contract with Ottawa after holding out as a RFA. He was eligible to play today, but the team is going to have him in the pressbox for the first night, presumably so he can get some practices in and get up to speed.

Forwards
Tim Stützle - Josh Norris - Drake Batherson
Nick Paul - Shane Pinto - Connor Brown
Alex Formenton - Chris Tierney - Tyler Ennis
Zach Sanford - Logan Shaw - Parker Kelly

Defense
Thomas Chabot - Artyom Zub
Victor Mete - Nikita Zaitsev
Nick Holden - Joshua Brown

Goalies
Anton Forsberg - confirmed starter
Filip Gustavsson

Game Coverage