After last nights strong win against the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena (that actually hurts to type), the Leafs return to Toronto to take on those Wings a second time. This trend of home-and-away back-to-back preseason games has lent itself to a particular trend: 1st team, 1st night; 2nd team, 2nd night.

Tonight we will most definitely be seeing the 2nd team. Here are the forward lines as per Kristen Shilton:

Kristen corrected that she did, in fact, mean “Aaltonen” there on the first line.

And the D pairs:

There is very little which is “interesting” about tonights pairings and lines, but who is playing in the 2nd team game is definitely of note. It comes as no surprise that Kapanen and Soshnikov, who do not need waivers to be sent down, are playing tonight.

Another interesting appearance is from Carrick. We saw Babcock’s roster last night look very close to an NHL team, and it included a bottom pair of Rosen and Borgman. Could it be possible that Carrick has played his way into the 7th slot instead of the bottom pair? His pre-season certainly hasn’t been impressive, so tonight is an important test for him to earn an opening night spot.

Additionally, Miro Aaltonen centering Leivo and Kapanen is probably not a good sign for his bid to take away the 4C job which Dominic Moore has been slotted in. Aaltonen has done as much as he canto prove himself NHL capable, but because of the coach’s penchant for role players, he may be without a starting job. Tonight could definitely weigh into that decision.

From the Detroit Red Wings’ twitter account, here is the roster the Wings will play tonight:

The Leafs have had pretty good pre-season results thus far. No one slotted for an NHL job has really looked poor, but there certainly is still some rust to shake out. Looking for a 2nd straight playoff appearance, the Leafs are definitely shaping up to hit the ground running come October 4th.

This is their final pre-season game, so if anyone tonight is going to make the case for a spot, tonight is the night to do it, but the opportunity is pretty limited. I can’t see any of the forwards unseating the group of 12 which have been predicted since the summer, and other than Carrick and Dermott jockeying with Borgman and Rosen, there’s not much to work out on defense either.

As for their opponent, the Red Wings are not shaping up to be in a good position this October. With key young players missing from camp due to injury or contract issues, some spots are opening up for players like Martin Frk and David Booth. Unfortunately neither of those players are in the lineup tonight.

Puck drops at 7:00pm, so tune in for the last game before the regular season begins!