Coming off of an opening season victory against the Montreal Canadiens, the Toronto Maple Leafs will face off tonight against the Ottawa Senators. Ottawa lost last night in their opener against the Detroit Red Wings.
The Leafs will again be without Clarke MacArthur (suspension), Tim Connolly (shoulder) and Nazem Kadri (knee) tonight. Without these three key forwards the Leafs should struggle again to create some consistent offense. James Reimer is expected to start tonight after shutting out the Habs Thursday night. Both teams are on the younger side. The Leafs are the second youngest team in the league (behind the Nashville Predators), while the Senators have multiple rookies in the lineup including super freshmen Mika Zibanajed and David Runblad. Colton Orr will make his season debut in place of Jay Rosehill.
It will be interesting to see how if the Leafs can take advantage of the weaker Sens, who are playing the second of back to back games.
Lineups
Leafs
Orr - Lombardi - Brown
Defense
Gunnarsson - Phaneuf
Liles - Schenn
Gardiner - Komisarek
Goalies
Reimer
Gustavsson
Senators
Forwards
Michalek - Spezza - Filatov
Greening - Zibanajed - Alfredsson
Foligno - Da Costa - Neil
Condra - Smith - Butler
Defense
Kuba - Karlsson
Cowen - Gonchar
Phillips - Lee
Goalies
Anderson
Auld
Players to Watch
Leafs: John Michael Liles - The puck moving rearguard struggled leading the powerplay on Thursday. Special teams will be an important part of the Leafs success this season, and the smooth skating blueliner should lead the charge with the man advantage.
Senators: Jason Spezza - The Sens offense will only go as far as Spezza leads them. Can the Mississauga native punish his hometown team?
Game Time: 7:00 at the Air Canada Centre. TV - CBC. Radio - AM640.
