The Maple Leafs are back in action tonight after a three day break. The San Jose Sharks will be here for their one and only visit to Toronto of the season. Tonight’s game is the last at home before a three game road trip stopping in Pittsburgh, Raleigh, and Chicago.

It’s been pretty quiet around here with the Leafs out of the action, but fortunately, the Habs stepped in to entertain us with their horrible start to the season. It continued last night with their 4-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes, leaving them still as the only team in the NHL with 0 points, though the Coyotes and Blackhawks both have no wins as well, but they have 1 point from OT losses.

The icing on the drama cake last night was a goal scored by none other than Jesperi Kotkaniemi, famously stolen from the Canadiens in the summer with the rarely used NHL Offer Sheet.

The Hurricanes secret to success this season?

The Maple Leafs don’t actually have any Finns on the roster right now, after going all in on Czech players in the off-season. They can always call up Teemu Kivihalme in a crunch, even though he’s secretly from Minnesota.

The immediate threat for tonight is the Sharks who also don’t have any Finns on their roster, aside from Sateri Hatakka, a draft pick who has yet to appear in a game, however they do have James Reimer and Alex Barabanov in the ex-Leafs column, and we know that’s going to be dangerous if they both play tonight. We continue our combined preview and GDT experiment today, so look for our post about the game at 5:00 p.m. ET.

There was some additional misery in Quebec last night too at the hands of the Leafs organisation, as the Newfoundland Growlers defeated the new expansion Trois Rivieres Lions at their home opener.

Other News

Speaking of the Sharks, Erik Karlsson knows what matters.

The Lightning handed out their Championship rings last night and as is the case with all sports now they become more elaborate each year. The ring has all kinds of special stuff on the outside and on the inner side. It even open up with more special messages inside, including a reference to the famous Kucherov press conference.
(Hover over the Tweet and arrows appear to scroll through the photos.)

Jack Hughes’ Injury and How it Could Expose the Devils’ Weakness - All About The Jersey
Hughes suffered a dislocated shoulder; the potential for him to miss an extended period could spell disaster for the Devils’ season.

From The Branches