Tonight we have our final road pre-season game for the Maple Leafs, and it’s in Detroit at the shiny new Little Caesars Arena. Will they come smelling of Parmesan cheese and sadness? We’ll find out tonight!
Toronto Maple Leafs at Detroit Red Wings
7:30PM - Detroit, Michigan
TV: Sportsnet / Radio: TSN1050
SBN: Winging It in Motown
Tonight’s try outs are:
Dominic Moore
Possible Role: 4th line centre
I think that role is still going to be split between Dominic Moore and Miro Aaltonen, so Moore needs to make a good show of himself tonight.
Martin Marincin
Possible Role: 6/7 defender
Could he do it: He did it last year, so that’s giving a lot of people the assumption he’ll make the line up this year. I think he’ll be in the mix up until the last minute. To me, he’s borderline with the new additions to defence.
Related
Maple Leafs' Top 25 Under 25: Martin Marincin is No. 8
Calle Rosen
Possible Role: 6/7 defender
Could he do it: Rosen was one of my picks in the round table to make the Leafs D to start the season, and I’ll stick with it. Odds are he’ll be paired with someone who is also fighting for a spot so if he doesn't have an NHLer with him perhaps more mistakes will become obvious.
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PPP Roundtable: Who makes the Leafs?
Andreas Borgman
Possible Role: 6/7 defender
Could he do it: Borgman the third defender playing for a spot and like the other he’s been spoken of favourably by watchers and talkers. Like Rosen he’s waiver exempt, so perhaps a call up/down situation with these two swapping the 7th spot will ultimately happen.
Related
2017 Top 25 Under 25: Andreas Borgman is 16th
So, who else is playing?
We don’t have the lines for the Leafs yet, but here are the players playing tonight:
This is the group (minus Holl) that Leafs are bringing to Detroit
— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) September 29, 2017
Big night for bubble boys Moore, Marincin, Rosen, Borgman pic.twitter.com/Ud8HlwtCQB
The forward lines are about what you’d expect, with Martin, Moore and Brown making up the fourth line, but the D pairs are interesting:
Leafs D at skate
— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) September 29, 2017
Rielly-Hainsey
Gardiner-Zaitsev
Rosen-Borgman
Marincin-Holl
Andersen starts
Not so much let’s you and him fight as let’s you and him compete while playing together.
What about the Red Wings?
Well their lines aren’t out right now, but Wings fans seem to be saying that they’ll be icing a close to starting night line up. This would make sense as that’s how the Leafs did their last home game.
Here’s how the lines looked for their previous game, and we’ll update when the new lines come out:
Tomas Tatar - Henrik Zetterberg - Gustav Nyquist
Justin Abdelkader - Dylan Larkin - Anthony Mantha
P.A. Parenteau - Frans Nielsen - Darren Helm
Luke Glendening - Riley Sheahan - Martin Frk
Trevor Daley - Dan DeKeyser
Xavier Ouellet - Mike Green
Jonathan Ericsson - Nick Jensen
Jimmy Howard
Petr Mrazek
I for one, am excited to win tonight’s game based on this line up. Am I overconfident and a huge homer? Yep. Are the Red Wings going to be bad despite being a cap team? Yep.
Enjoy the game tonight everybody!