Finally, hockey season has arrived. The Toronto Maple Leafs faced off against the Ottawa Senators. The teams played at the CAA Centre, home of the Belleville Senators.
Skaters: Aston-Reese, Aube-Kubel, Der-Arguchintsev, Holmberg, Kampf, Malgin, McMann, Robertson, Shaw, Simmonds, Steeves, Holl, Hollowell, Kral, Mete, Villeneuve.
Goaltenders: Samsonov
Depth Pieces Shine Again
The Toronto Maple Leafs once again opted to not-play their star players, in the likes of Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner. Yet they gave the opportunity to those in the process of hoping to crack the opening night lineup.
Nick Robertson got the Leafs on the board once again. The youngster ripped a shot from distance, beating Sens' goaltender Anton Forsberg. Later in the game, Robertson would pick the puck up in the slot, and rip it by the netminder. The California native, now has three goals, in three preseason games. The rookie will look for all the confidence he can get as he looks to crack the opening night lineup.
The Leafs will definitely have one of the top fourth lines in the entire NHL this season. Both Zach Aston-Reese, and Nicolas Aube-Kubel, looked sharp tonight adding points. Aube-Kubel picked up a rebound from from an Aston-Reese shot, to score Toronto's second goal. Then, Woodbridge native, Victor Mete scored his first goal of the season.
Denis Malgin would once again impress, the Swiss forward potted another preseason goal, to give the Leafs a 4-2 lead, in the midst of the third period.
Samsonov Scares
Ilya Samsonov made his second start of the preseason tonight. The Russian netminder had a shaky start. Samsonov left the game during the first after making a save, the goalie was down for a bit, before making it to the dressing room on his own power. He would later return in for the second period.
Samsonov allowed three goals to Drake Batherson, Parker Kelly and Angus Crookshank. The netminder would shut down for the rest of night, although will need to work on his puck handling. The Leafs goaltender stopped 27 out of 30 shots on goal.
To Conclude...
With three games left, it will be a good struggle within the Leafs organization to narrow down their lineup. The Leafs took the preseason game, 6-3, as Justin Holl added an empty netter.