LGD: Battle Of Fairly Averages
8 years ago
On Saturday night, the very defeated Leafs take on the undefeated Ottawa Senators. With just one goal for and seven against in their first two games, the Leafs look, to start the year, about as expected, honestly. Playing three games in four nights is almost never favourable, and for the 0-2 Leafs, it could present some difficulties.
Unless, of course, you’ve already written off the season, in which case, the schedule plays a hand in the early start of Tank Nation: 2016 Edition.
In any case, Ottawa comes in with a 1-0 record with a victory over Jack Eichel’s Sabres, the only loss of his career to date.
The Leafs
The Leafs defence of the past few seasons always finds a way to be a little hilarious, though I suppose you could say the same about the forward group.
It’s unclear at the time of publishing who exactly will be pulled out.
| LW | C | RW |
|---|---|---|
 James van Riemsdyk |  Nazem Kadri |  Brad Boyes |
 Shawn Matthias |  Tyler Bozak |  Joffrey Lupul |
 Leo Komarov |  Peter Holland |  Mark Arcobello |
 Daniel Winnik |  Nick Spaling |  P.A. Parenteau |
| Defensive Pairings | |
|---|---|
 Matt Hunwick |  Dion Phaneuf |
 Martin Marincin |  Morgan Rielly |
 Jake Gardiner |  Scott Harrington |
The Senators
Ottawa goes with the same lineup from Friday. As they come in undefeated, the Leafs should probably just forfeit already.
| LW | C | RW |
|---|---|---|
 Mike Hoffman |  Kyle Turris |  Mark Stone |
 Curtis Lazar |  Mika Zibanejad |  Bobby Ryan |
 Clarke MacArthur |  Jean-Gabriel Pageau |  Milan Michalek |
 Alex Chiasson |  Zack Smith |  Chris Neil |
| Defensive Pairings | |
|---|---|
 Marc Methot |  Erik Karlsson |
 Patrick Wiercioch |  Cody Ceci |
 Jared Cowen |  Mark Borowiecki |
Starting Goalies
What to watch for
- Tyler Bozak, as twitter has told me, has led the Leafs’ forwards in ice time the past two games.
- If James Reimer plays well, it’ll be interesting to see how Mike Babcock handles the goaltending situation for the next little while.
- Someone to score for the Leafs. That’d be nice.
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