The Maple Leafs lost their second game of the preseason last night, as a rough approximation of Toronto’s team fell 5-2 to a rough approximation of Montreal’s. While most Leaf fans are understandably impatient with moral victories and eager for actual victories, this is the preseason, and nothing really matters. So it’s fine to note the Leafs actually dominated play at 5v5 last night, and just got clobbered on the penalty kill. Hopefully they improve at the latter game state as the roster takes shape.
If you want a specific nice thing: I thought Ondřej Kaše looked good. He’s opportunistic and versatile, and if he can just stay healthy—massive if—he might contribute.
ICYMI
Montreal Canadiens beat the Maple Leafs 5-2 to win preseason Game 2 by Elseldo. A recap of last night’s action.
Key dates for the 2021-22 NHL season by Hardev Lad. The NHL’s calendar is still slightly off as the league seeks to get back on track after last year’s COVID-delayed season.
3 plausible Maple Leafs rosters that fit under the cap by Katya Knappe. A lot of the rosterbating I’ve seen in in the past couple of weeks seems to ignore just how many forwards the Leafs have. As Katya lays out, it’s mighty hard to make room for Nick Robertson, to say nothing of PTO candidates like Josh Ho-Sang and Nikita Gusev, without a trade to clear bodies.
Stuff We Didn’t Write
The Leafs Nation: All or Nothing hits the mark for Leafs fans. Nick Barden, one of our frenemies at TLN, thinks that the upcoming Amazon series about the Leafs is well worth your time. We’ll have a piece on the general concept later today, and then the series itself after it airs, although thank God I won’t be writing either of those.
The Athletic: Maple Leafs’ All or Nothing Review. If, like me, you don’t want to watch the series but you wouldn’t mind finding out some highlights from each episode, The Athletic’s Joshua Kloke has you covered.
The Athletic: Vancouver Canucks 2021-22 Season Preview. Dom Luszczyszyn’s team previews are always a good way to catch up on how teams are doing (though it’s the Vancouver beat writers who did the text on this one.) Predictably, the Vancouver fans don’t like hearing that their bad team is probably gonna be bad. Also, I expect the Nucks will get Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes signed, but they sure are taking their time about it.
Silver Seven Sens: Sens trade Logan Brown for Zach Sanford. The Senators have finally given up on 2016 first-rounder Logan Brown. Brown stood out primarily for being one of the largest forwards in hockey, at a whopping six-and-a-half feet tall. He’s 23 and still hasn’t stuck in the NHL, so if he’s going to show something for his new organization (the St. Louis Blues) he’d probably better do it soon.
Here’s a song for y’all to get rolling this morning. Have a swell day.
