Jay Rosehill thinks the Leafs need to set a tone, smash the Panthers, and tell them their little Cinderella story is over: Leafs Morning Take

It’s been 160 days since the Leafs were eliminated by the Florida Panthers in Round 2 of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Tonight, they’ll find a get a chance for some revenge, some retribution, whatever you want to call it. That said, it kind of stinks that a lot of the key players that took part in that series for the Panthers won’t be playing —but so be it.

We kicked off the Thursday edition of Leafs Morning Take by discussing Toronto’s Halloween party. In case you missed it, Ryan Reaves and his wife dressed up as Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart. They killed it! I love how much spotlight Reaves is getting. It’s helping to take some of the attention from the big boys, and that’s a good thing.

Presented by DoorDash, we got into the Appetizer of the show discussing whether this is a measuring stick game or not. Even though Florida’s missing some important players, I still think it’s important for Toronto to flex their muscles early in the season and show everyone that they’re not messing around. Additionally, I would hope that they have a bitter taste in their mouths from happened last spring. We shall see.

After that, brought to you by Wendy’s Canada, we dissected Matthew Knies’ promotion to the second line to play with John Tavares and William Nylander. Right move? Wrong move? Any way you slice it, they need to get Knies going offensively.

 

Meantime, we’ll be watching Ilya Samsonov closely tonight, too. He hasn’t had a great start to his season, and considering what happened last spring, tonight is as good as ever a time to get cookin’.

Join us on Friday at 11 AM as we recap tonight’s game. Also, we’ll preview Saturday night’s tilt in Tampa at Amalie Arena between the Leafs and Lightning.