Who: Toronto Maple Leafs vs Binghamton Ottawa Senators
What: Pre-season Game #6
Where: Scotiabank Place in Kanata, Ontario; right next to the Kanata Chevy and Mazda dealerships and what appears to be a cornfield.
When: 7:00pm on LeafsTV, or streamed by Leafs TV Interactive
Why: With only two games left in the pre-season and October 6 fast approaching, Ron Wilson needs to settle on a roster for opening night. Tonight's game will probably be the last pre-season game for the handful of bubble players who won't make the cut as it's likely Wilson will suit up his opening night roster as a whole against Detroit in two games over the weekend.
Projected Leafs Roster:
Goalies - James Reimer, Ben Scrivens
Defense - Dion Phaneuf - Carl Gunnarsson; Luke Schenn - John-Michael Liles; Keith Aulie - Cody Franson
Forwards - Clarke MacArthur - Mikhail Grabovski - Nikolai Kulemin, Joffrey Lupul - Nazem Kadri - Phil Kessel, Matt Frattin - Darryl Boyce - Colby Armstrong, Jay Rosehill - Philippe Dupuis - Joey Crabb
Extras: Mike Brown, Tim Connolly, Matthew Lombardi, Colton Orr, Jake Gardiner, Mike Komisarek, and Matt Lashoff.
More after the jump.
Forwards - Greening - Spezza - Filatov; Hoffman - Zibanejad - Butler; Foligno - Regin - Condra; Daugavins - Smith - Neil. (Sylvain St-Laurent)
Defense - Gonchar - Borowiecki; Cowen - Karlsson; Rundblad - Lee. (Scott MacArthur)
Goalies - Robin Lehner, Alex Auld
And no, the Senators don't have a slew of more cuts to make. This is about 95% of their opening night roster, excluding Alfreddson, Da Costa, Phillips, and Anderson. Yikes. I thought the Leafs had it bad.
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Like the last two pre-season games before it, tonight's bout serves the purpose of letting Wilson figure out who should stay and who should go before opening night. Or in the case of Mike Komisarek, who has to stay, but who should go. And that, the ability to freely be sent down and called up from the Marlies, may ultimately be the largest factor in finalizing the roster. As Mirtle pointed out in his article last night;
....(of those remaining in camp) only Ben Scrivens, Jake Gardiner, Keith Aulie, Nazem Kadri and Matt Frattin don’t require waivers to play in the AHL this season.
In the case of Aulie, I think he'll be saved by the fact that there are realistically only 7 defensemen fighting for 7 spots, so he'll stick with the team. Nazem Kadri is too freaking good to get sent down, though Matt Lombardi and his possible shift to the wing (Why Wilson? Why?!?) could throw a monkey wrench into the works. So more than likely, it'll be guys like Scrivens, Frattin, Gardiner, Lashoff, Rosehill, and Crabb playing their first games in the Ricoh this year.
As Burke told us last year in horribly edited commericials, "Every Game is a Tryout", tonight's game especially.
GO LEAFS GO!
