Toronto Maple Leafs @ Montréal Canadiens
07:00 PM at Centre Bell
Watch on: TSN4, TSN2, RDS

TSN4 will be the broadcaster in the Leafs region. TSN2 is the Canadiens regional coverage.

The Leafs do their return visit to play the Canadiens today. There are too many injuries for the full roster to be made out of the second group, but it is mostly an AHL cast.

Fleshing out the Group Two lineup is Matt Knies, Steven Lorentz, who appears in only his second game, Nick Robertson, Simon Benoit, who has to get a trip close to his hometown in and Conor Timmins.

Topi Niemelä is one of seven defenders, but may not play, and Ryan Tverberg shows up on the forward roster.

Lines based loosely on yesterday's practice should shake out like this:

Matt Knies - Pontus Holmberg - Easton Cowan
Nick Robertson - Logan Shaw - Alex Nylander
Roni Hirvonen - Jacob Quillan - Nick Abruzzese
Steven Lorentz - Cédric Paré - Nikita Grebenkin

Simon Benoit - Conor Timmins
Mikko Kokkonen - Nicolas Mattinen
Marshall Rifai - Phil Myers

Subject to change, there was no morning skate with line rushes.

The Rest of the Leafs

The Host Team

They have a much more NHL roster this time out, as expected.

The Game

Four players on the Leafs are all in interesting positions.

  1. Matt Knies has been a bit underwhelming, but seems to have a lock on the Matthews line wing job.
  2. Nick Robertson has done his usual "about to burn out lightbulb" routine of flickering on and off in games. Look only at the bright light of that very nifty goal he scored last game, and you're infatuated with him.
  3. Easton Cowan has been intermittent as well, with some good special teams work and a struggle at five-on-five to fit his game in with NHL linemates.
  4. Steven Lorentz got the easy job of going out and doing what he did last year – play a responsible game with a high level of concentration (no flickering allowed for depth guys) with some un-talented fourth liners.

If I was making final decisions now (which would be silly, there is a week more of training camp) I'd sign Lorentz to that easy job he does easily, I'd trade Nick Robertson when he's most dazzling and I'd have a really long phone call with Dale Hunter before I sent Cowan back to London.

Matt Knies is a tougher problem. He was great in the playoffs, he needs to be better the rest of the time than he was last year, and he should be. It's not really showing up in his preseason games, though.

All of this can wait out this game, the four-day break before games five and six next week, and right up to the Monday deadline for rosters on October 7.

Game Coverage