Good morning on this Toronto Maple Leafs game day!

Let me mosey on down to the schedule to see who we’re playing tonight. Ottawa? Aw man. Wait, what do you mean we have to play the Sens twice in a row? NINE TIMES THIS SEASON?! That is way too much.

Well, we have to start somewhere. Please let it be an easy night for everyone wearing blue.

Various Leafs Branches

The Leafs were sloppy, and that’s not ok in the first game of a shortened schedule | by Katya

Optimist vs Pessimist on the Leafs first game of the season | by Arvind

European Report: Stretch Drive in the KHL | by Katya

The story on the mainstream was finding the line on cross checking | by Luke Fox (Sportsnet)

In cap news, the Leafs swapped Alexander Barabanov and Mikko Lehtonen during the off-day in order to give Lehtonen a day of NHL pay. The lineup will be unchanged for Game 2 as Barabanov is going to be brought back from the Taxi Squad. This was all done via paper transactions. The Leafs did not gain or lose any deadline cap space with this move as Barabanov and Lehtonen make the same money in the NHL. I was hoping they would bank as much space as possible on the off days, but alas.

Zach Hyman is officially a father! Welcome Baby Theo Hyman to Leafs Nation!

Egor Korshkov scored this very KHL goal yesterday. You can read more about his season in the European Report.

Wednesday’s season opener was Sportsnet’s most-watched game of all time. And with these numbers, it is 100% clear that the Leafs are at least six times more important than the Oilers and Canucks.

I feel like this needs repeating:

On Wednesday night, Harnarayan Singh became the first non-white play-by-play announcer to call an NHL game on national TV in English. Singh has been the PxP announcer for Hockey Night in Punjabi since 2008.

Sammy Blais was suspended two games for this high hit on Colorado Avalanche defenseman Devon Toews.

Some people are just not meant to go left.

Censored in the penalty box.

From The Branches