With the first preseason games this weekend, the training camp Leafs have to get ready fast to play some fake hockey.
If you check out that roster, you will find two playing groups of mostly NHL players that can form the core of a game roster. Group C is mostly AHLers who might get brought onto one of the other rosters now and again, but this is a serious business camp, and the biggest difference between Kyle Dubas and Brad Treliving is that in his media availability yesterday, Treliving was very upfront about the lack of jobs on the Leafs roster.
You can watch those recorded videos here:
Some interesting things:
Some preliminary results on that experiment in power plays that don't end in a goal:
Okay, and now I've hit that moment, as happens so often where tweets won't embed, so not trying.
As we enter training camp the desire to get your attention with stories about William Nylander and Elias Pettersson unsigned after this year, Steven Stamkos decided to do some negotiating in the media:
Which means that the Nylander circus has to change to constant chatter about him playing centre. Both Treliving and Sheldon Keefe were at pains to talk up Nylander yesterday (videos linked above) and they also both talked about this centre playing business – a feature of training camp year after year. Goldfish memories in hockey means it's all new and controversial again. Listen to Keefe and decide if this is going to last into October.
The view from America on the start of training camp:
And that's enough to be getting on with.