The radio call of the first two preseason games in St. John’s was nice and all but tonight, hockey is back for real. Well as real as preseason hockey can be anyway.
The Ottawa Senators will play two games against the rival Toronto Maple Leafs, one at the Canadian Tire Centre and the other in Toronto.
There isn’t a whole lot of room for surprises in this year’s camp but if someone wants to grab the attention of the Coaching staff and management, tonight would be the time to do it. As early as tomorrow, the Senators are expected to break the camp into an NHL and an AHL group. They won’t be making all the cuts but I’m expecting 24-26 guys to be left on the main roster after that split. With Binghamton holding their training camp in France this year, the organization wants to make sure they give guys time to get ready to travel.
After tonight, the Senators have five days before their next game in Winnipeg next Tuesday and then a back to back against the Montreal Canadiens on October 3rd and 4th. The regular season starts October 9th in Nashville.
Tonight, the focus is on the Leafs. Here’s a look at the line up that will play in the game in Toronto.
Michalek-Zibanejad-Chiasson
Hoffman-Smith-Stone
Prince-Pageau-Kramer
Dziurzynski-Dzingel-Condra
Phillips-Johnson
Cowen-Ceci
Wiercioch-Grant
Lehner
Hammond
And the line up for the game in Ottawa, via Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun.
MacArthur-Turris-Ryan
Greening-Legwand-Neil
Puempel-Lazar-Robinson
Guptill-Grant-Mills
Claesson-Karlsson
Borowiecki-Gryba
Sdao-Wideman
Anderson
Diredger
