Maple Leafs Pregame #2: Five things to watch for against the BJs
By Jon Steitzer
4 years agoRiding that high of an opening night win, the Leafs are taking their act on the road for the Blue Jackets home opener in Columbus. While it would be easy to point out that this is a very stripped down Blue Jackets team with little hope for the future, it’s also still a team with Zach Werenski and Seth Jones on the blueline, so perhaps that will be the interesting challenge.
I had to double check and apparently Joonas Korpisalo IS in fact their opening night starter, so I greet that with both a “Yikes”, and a sense of optimism and worry. The optimism comes from the fact he’s very new to the starting role, is a career .907 Sv% goaltender, with two years removed from being about .900. The worry comes from the fact that history shows this is the kind of situation the Leafs routinely fail to take advantage of and Korpisalo was highly touted at one point and there’s always the chance he’s chosen tonight to break out.
What’s really confusing is how I picked the Blue Jackets to make the playoffs, but you’ve read my writing. You know I’m an idiot.
Projected Lines
| LW | C | RW | Forwards |
|---|---|---|---|
 KASPERI KAPANEN Rating: 73.4#61 LW |  JOHN TAVARES Rating: 79.3#13 C |  MITCH MARNER Rating: 77.8#10 RW | FL1 Rating Rating: 76.79#17 FL1 |
 ANDREAS JOHNSSON Rating: 74.2#45 LW |  AUSTON MATTHEWS Rating: 80.4#6 C |  WILLIAM NYLANDER Rating: 73.3#49 RW | FL2 Rating Rating: 75.95#4 FL2 |
 ILYA MIKHEYEV Rating: 73.8#50 LW |  ALEXANDER KERFOOT Rating: 72.0#101 C |  TREVOR MOORE Rating: 72.6#59 RW | FL3 Rating Rating: 72.78#9 FL3 |
 NIC PETAN Rating: 68.9#140 LW |  JASON SPEZZA Rating: 72.1#96 C |  FREDERIK GAUTHIER Rating: 69.5#106 RW | FL4 Rating Rating: 70.20#25 FL4 |
| DEFENSIVE PAIRINGS | Defense | |
|---|---|---|
 MORGAN RIELLY Rating: 77.4#5 LD |  CODY CECI Rating: 71.3#84 RD | DL1 Rating Rating: 74.38#22 DL1 |
 JAKE MUZZIN Rating: 74.7#27 LD |  TYSON BARRIE Rating: 76.9#17 RD | DL2 Rating Rating: 75.78#2 DL2 |
 RASMUS SANDIN Rating: 73.7#50 LD |  MARTIN MARINCIN Rating: 72.3#66 RD | DL3 Rating Rating: 73.03#12 DL3 |
Note that Justin Holl will be in for Marincin.
| LW | C | RW | Forwards |
|---|---|---|---|
 ALEXANDRE TEXIER Rating: 73.7#60 LW |  PIERRE-LUC DUBOIS Rating: 76.5#27 C |  CAM ATKINSON Rating: 79.6#4 RW | FL1 Rating Rating: 76.59#18 FL1 |
 NICK FOLIGNO Rating: 72.6#79 LW |  BOONE JENNER Rating: 73.3#64 C |  JOSH ANDERSON Rating: 73.4#59 RW | FL2 Rating Rating: 73.09#22 FL2 |
 GUSTAV NYQUIST Rating: 74.3#44 LW |  ALEXANDER WENNBERG Rating: 70.2#144 C |  OLIVER BJORKSTRAND Rating: 74.8#28 RW | FL3 Rating Rating: 73.11#8 FL3 |
 JAKOB LILJA |  RILEY NASH Rating: 69.9#154 C |  EMIL BEMSTROM | FL4 Rating Rating: 69.92#29 FL4 |
| DEFENSIVE PAIRINGS | Defense | |
|---|---|---|
 RYAN MURRAY Rating: 74.4#35 LD |  SETH JONES Rating: 80.2#3 RD | DL1 Rating Rating: 77.32#3 DL1 |
 ZACH WERENSKI Rating: 76.9#8 LD |  DAVID SAVARD Rating: 73.9#36 RD | DL2 Rating Rating: 75.37#5 DL2 |
 SCOTT HARRINGTON Rating: 69.9#114 LD |  MARKUS NUTIVAARA Rating: 72.5#61 RD | DL3 Rating Rating: 71.21#28 DL3 |
Now some things to think about…
1. Jason Spezza’s Leafs Debut
Just as he always dreamed, Spezza will be putting on a Leafs jersey in front of possible distant 23andme verified family in Columbus, Ohio. It’s not the home opener, but Spezza is getting a chance to play. The downside for him seems that he’s going to be mainly used on the road this year because he doesn’t fit in with Babcock’s line matching plans (Seriously, who line matches the fourth line in October?)
Anyway, here’s hoping that Spezza can demonstrate that he still has some good hockey left in him, as getting as much possible upside out his league minimum contract should be in everyone’s best interest and there’s no doubt that a motivated Spezza could have the most upside of the potential fourth liner group, even ahead of Timashov and Petan.
Speaking of Petan…
2. Oh look, it’s Justin Holl and Nic Petan
On a positive note, last year’s permanent press box fixtures are getting a chance to show what they can do early this year.
I wouldn’t doubt that Paul is right here, but with the added pleasant complication of both Hyman and Dermott returning shortly after that point.
My guess is that Petan will be up with the Leafs until the last possible minute before he requires waivers again, so he’ll either get 10 games or 30 days with the Leafs which ever comes first to show he belongs. That’s one hell of an uphill battle, but he looked good in training camp and injuries do happen, so let’s see how things shake out for him.
Holl has a bit more time as Dermott isn’t expected back as soon, and has the added chance to stick if Rasmus Sandin is in fact on a nine game tryout and not a Leaf for the season. If Sandin is only going to play 8 minutes a night, I’d probably lean towards the tryout at this point, even though Sandin should be getting a bigger workload.
3. Andersen is in net?
This seems odd, given that this part of back to back games, and it would make sense to start him at home on a Saturday night against Montreal. Though Mike Babcock is a damned stubborn man, and his trend has been to always use Andersen on the first half of the back to back and sit him the next night regardless.
Additionally it’s only the first week of the season and I am curious if Babcock’s going to start Andersen both games as a “screw you” to everyone pointing out the benefits of managing his goaltender’s workload.
4. Can Matthews keep up his 164 goal pace?
I mean, there’s got to at least be a chance that he doesn’t start regressing against this Blue Jackets lineup, but perhaps that is too greedy. I’d also settle for John Tavares getting his name on the score sheet.
5. Alex Kerfoot watch
This is extremely premature but through the preseason and the first game I’m still very much on the fence about Alex Kerfoot. It’s not his fault that he was quickly converted to center and he’s going to need time to adjust to the role, but I think we might get a rocky start, as evident from his opening night…
Not that a low event third line is a bad thing, but it would be nice to see something out of Kerfoot soon and perhaps I’m judging him a bit more harshly because of the strong performances of Ilya Mikheyev and Tyson Barrie.
Puck drop for tonight’s game is 7:00PM ET (probably later because Columbus will do an opening night ceremony) and it can be seen in Ontario on TSN 4.
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