Puck Drop 7pm CBC HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA/AM640
The marathon pre-season is finally coming to a close. Eight games are down and tonight's will feature almost the entire Leafs' opening night roster. The last decision seems to centre around who will be the fourth line pivot. Mike Zigomanis is getting into the roster tonight and, as MF37 reminds us constantly, the decision may come down to something as simple as waivers. Christian Hanson is still waiver eligible for 20 games while Zigomanis would not be able to be re-called from the Marlies without being exposed to waivers.
Jean-Sebastien Giguere will get the start for just the second time. He's clearly of the "pre-season doesn't matter" school of thought as he put his focus on practicing to prepare for the year. The defence corps will definitely be the opening night sextet. The spotlight will be on them all season long to deliver now that the Maple Leafs have two goalies that are not horrible behind them. The key thing to watch for tonight is how the pairings communicate. They aren't facing world beaters but they are still Red Wings.
Your Toronto Maple Leafs courtesy of Jonas Siegel: The Fightin' Leafs!
Forwards
Kris Versteeg - Tyler Bozak - Phil Kessel
Clarke MacArthur - Mikhail Grabovski - Nikolai Kulemin
Fredrik Sjostrom - Tim Brent - Colby Armstrong
Colton Orr - Mike Zigomanis - Mike Brown
Defence
Francois Beauchemin - Dion Phaneuf
Tomas Kaberle - Mike Komisarek
Carl Gunnarsson - Luke Schenn
Goalie
Jean-Sebastien Giguere
Jonas Gustavsson
The Grand Rapids Griffins will be icing a strong team, courtesy of Ansar Khan:
Forwards
Drew Miller - Justin Abdelkader - Mattias Ritola
Kirk Maltby - Darren Helm - Willie Coetzee
Jordan Owens - Cory Emmerton - Jan Mursak
Tomas Tatar - Joakim Andersson - Francis Pare
Defence
Jonathan Ericsson - Jakub Kindl
Brian Lashoff - Ruslan Salei
Doug Janik - Brendan Smith
Goalies
