Riding 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.

Paul Hendrick

@HennyTweets

·Follow

Busy schedule right now, expect rotation on the 4 line and 3rd pairing. 10 games in and we might see a more consistent looking roster moving forward. #LeafsForever

Wally Jaroslawski 🇨🇦

@WJaroslawski

No Shore Timo Marincin

12:08 PM · Oct 4, 2019

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…

via NaturalStatTrick.com

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.