Following the Blue Jays’ epic collapse in Game 4 on Broadway, it’s great to have the Leafs back in the mix.

The big day is finally here as we’re now a few short hours away from puck drop on the 2025-26 campaign. Montreal’s in town. Leafs/Habs. Season opener. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Obviously, we kicked off the Wednesday edition of Leafs Morning Take by giving our quick thoughts on the baseball team. They had the Yankees on the ropes, and unfortunately, just like the Maple Leafs with the Panthers last spring, they let them back in the series. Any way you slice, we’ll see if they have the fortitude/killer instinct to push through here.

After that, we weighed in on Auston Matthews’ comments regarding Connor McDavid’s extension on Tuesday. In case you missed, the Leafs captain said, “I think for him, it’s all about winning. It’s setting himself up for the best opportunity to do that…It’s what everybody wants to do, is to win. He’s committed as anybody to it.” Yeah, that one’s up for interpretation. Interesting stuff.

Anyway, we then brought in Zack Phillips, host of TheLeafsNation After Dark, for a roundtable discussion ahead of the season opener. We talked about the roster, the game one line up, the evolving crease situation, and what happens moving forward with Easton Cowan. With that in mind, we played some TAKE IT or LEAF IT. We debated the following: 1. Anthony Stolarz will play 55 games and solidify himself as the No. 1, 2. Mattias Maccelli will stick on Line 1 for the majority of the season, 3. Easton Cowan will play at least 40 regular season games.

Fresh off his PTO with the Maple Leafs, James Reimer stopped by the show. The former Leafs netminder dished on the past two weeks, what it was like throwing the Leafs jersey back on, and what he learned from the group in his short time. Furthermore, the 37-year-old was very complimentary of both Anthony Stolarz and Dennis Hildeby.

Lastly, we got to the Ninja Crispi HOT TAKE OF THE WEEK. To kick another season off, Producer Vick offered up a spicy one: Morgan Rielly will notch a career high in points this season. Ou. Let’s hope.

All set for the season opener. We’ll be back with you on Thursday at 11 AM ET to break it all down. Plus, we’ll look ahead to two straight games against the Detroit Red Wings.

You can subscribe to TheLeafsNation (TLN) YouTube channel HERE. Additionally, we’re available in podcast form, too —wherever you get your podcasts. While you’re at it, be sure to leave us a 5-star review!