The Toronto Maple Leafs played the Buffalo Sabres in their third pre-season game, the score was close until two empty net goals late but the Leafs seemed to really control the play. Twitter tells me that Travis Dermott and Josh Leivo were super impressive, as was Zach Hyman’s line, and McElhinney had a good bounce back game after stinking up Ottawa worse than Nielsen has stunk through the whole rookie and NHL pre-season (sorry my bias is showing). McElhinney and Sparks combined for the shutout in the Leafs 3-0 win. Shame they couldn’t get a real test against some NHL talent, unlike BuffaLOL. The Sabres’ GM Eichel will be furious with his team’s effort.

Pre-season game #3 recap: Maple Leafs shutout the Sabres as the defensemen fight for a spot.

Oh, and Morgan Rielly had this nice end-to-end powerplay goal.

This weekend is supposed to be hotter than Patrick Marleau’s jawline, including a heat warning for Southern Ontario as the humidity is potentially supposed to push the temperature north of 40 degrees (that’s Celsius for you godless Americans). Stay cool and stay safe everyone!

Onto the links!

In CWHL news, nafio shares the announcement of the 2017-2018 CWHL schedule. Want to go to a Furies game? You can see all their home dates here.

Species interviewed the entrepreneur behind the 3HL TOUR, a traveling 3 on 3 hockey tournament. It’s a neat idea that I highly recommend you read about if you haven’t already.

The Marlies have their pre-season training camp going on too, and Katya lists some of their roster moves here.

Speaking of the Marlies, Katya also points out that Liljegren’s chances of staying in the AHL this year is increasing as his SHL team sinks and stinks.

Justin Bourne gives his opinions on a various smaller bits of hockey related matters, including his weird opinion that Auston Matthews is perfectly fine as Hyman’s center. The Twitters won’t be happy to hear that.

Maple Leaf Hot Stove also talks about Matthews being on Hyman’s line, and touches on Brown and Grundström as well. Maybe Grundström can eventually supplant Nylander on Hyman’s line.

Sportsnet talks to Leivo and Babcock about the former's long odds to crack the roster. I shared this one mostly because Babcock's nicknames for Leivo, Brown and Aaltonen is so stereotypically "hockey": Leivs, Brownie, and Aalts. Really, Babs?

There was a new Steve Dangle Podcast on Thursday that included a Pete Blackburn as a guest. It’s no Back To Excited, but it’s a fun listen if you missed it.

For you fantasy hockey fans out there, it’s getting close to the time that you’ll have to pick your keepers (if you’re in a keeper league) and get ready for your draft. If you like to do research ahead of time, I recommend Dom Luszczyszyn’s projections package you can buy for a few bucks, most of which he donates to various charities!

If you don’t want to spend a few bucks for fantasy hockey help, my free tip is to always remember the cardinal rule: Never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever listen to scrambles when it comes to goalies.

How are you keeping cool this weekend?

Consuming more slushies than the average Winnipegian7
Donating my kidney just for the post-op bathtub full of ice10
Pouring a bucket of ice cream over my head7
What the hell is wrong with you? I’m just gonna sit in the dark with my AC cranked up and have a cold beer!75
From The Branches