Toronto Maple Leafs @ Detroit Red Wings
07:00 PM at Little Caesars Arena
Watch on: SN1, BSDET

The Leafs are sending this group over the bridge today:

Easton Cowan and Nikita Grebenkin have another chance to make a positive impression. Both PTO players, Max Pacioretty and Steven Lorentz, are also on tap. Calle Järnkrok, who had some kind of minor injury, is back. And of course Nick Robertson is in the lineup.

Cowan has played every game so far, Robertson and Grebenkin have only missed one. Quietly also appearing more than most players with three games played already are Pontus Holmberg – who gets this game off, and Jacob Quillan – who is on the roster. I think we can see the Leafs looking hard at all centre options there.

The defence is very AHL heavy and thankfully the Leafs are choosing to play Topi Niemelä in this game. After the social media contretemps last time he sat the game out, everyone should react in a calm and reasonable way. He's even on the top power play where he gets to use his key skillset.

Lines

Actual lines are a mystery so far, but the power play units tell part of the story.

Detroit

As usual the home team is icing a more serious roster. There's been some of the usual discussion about preseason this year, and the most baffling part has been people treating this as new where the home team having some real players and the road team sending their prospects and AHLers off to tilt at windmills. This is not a new phenomenon. The veteran rule exists because of this very thing, and it's over a decade old.

Lines from Ansar Khan

DeBrincat-Larkin-Raymond
Tarasenko-Kasper-Kane
Rasmussen-Copp-Fischer
Berggren-Veleno-Motte

Edvinsson-Seider
Chiarot-Petry
Maatta-Holl

Cam Talbot playing the whole game
Ville Husso

Kasper is Marco Kasper their 8th overall in 2022.

The Game

The last time the Marlies played the Red Wings in Detroit was the final game of preseason last year which the Wings won 5-4. Fraser Minten lead the Leafs in shots; Miko Kokkonen looked fantastic on defence; Nick Robertson had a very good game and Joe Woll did not.

Was any of that indicative of the regular season? Not really.

This is possibly the last Cowan and Grebenkin game – although the Leafs may want to hold out some stars for Saturday and give these two another chance at a home game. But it's the big chance to make an impression. Nothing else matters much.

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