In a refreshing change of pace the Leafs are losing a player to illness instead of injury tonight.

Being without Dermott is less than good on a blue line that is already down Morgan Rielly and not particularly great at the best of times, but the good news is the Leafs are playing the Senators.

What this means is that Martin Marincin will make his return to lineup and your hearts and we can begin speculating on how much ice time Rasmus Sandin will get, being as I’m sure we’d all rather see more of him than have Marincin eat top four minutes.

Given that Sandin hasn’t been bad with Ceci it will also be interesting if they just see more ice time and Marincin will be paired with Holl or if the Sandin-Holl pairing of the early part of the season will be revisited.

The fact that Michael Hutchinson is getting the start also adds to the intrigue tonight, and I guess we can safely say it will be up to the offence tonight.