Following a tough defeat on Sunday night, where the Senators won 6-5 in overtime, Craig Berube will look to win his first game as the Leafs' coach tonight. The Leafs will be in Ottawa to face the same Sens but will hope to get a different result.
The Leafs sent their best players onto the ice for the last game, including Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, and John Tavares, showing how much the team wanted to win. Most of them will get some rest to make way for the young prospects, as we can see in their official roster:
Despite many key absences, Berube made sure to put on a great show nonetheless by sending out Easton Cowan, Nikita Grebenkin, and the NCAA rivals Matthew Knies and Jacob Quillan together on the ice.
Cowan and Grebenkin, two of the organization's most promising prospects, performed very well in the rookie tournament against the Montreal Canadiens last week. It should be interesting to watch these two perform against the Ottawa Senators as the team attempts to get revenge for their tough 6-5 overtime loss.
We should also get to see Matthew Knies and Jacob Quillan on the ice. The two players met in the NCAA's Frozen Four during Knies' last college season, in which Knies had to watch Quillan score the overtime goal that would put an end to his college career.
Quillan, undrafted, signed a two-year entry-level contract with Toronto back in April. He joined the Marlies in the AHL at the time and took part in seven regular season games as well as three playoff games. He only managed to score one point (an assist) since signing his contract.
In addition to these four players, we'll keep a close eye on Nicholas Robertson, Alex Nylander, and Bobby McMann, who could all cause a surprise before the start of the regular season.
POLL | ||
24 SEPTEMBRE | 101 ANSWERS Craig Berube confirms Maple Leafs roster for tonight's game against the Ottawa Senators Do you think the Toronto Maple Leafs will beat the Ottawa Senators after Sunday's tough loss? | ||
Yes | 74 | 73.3 % |
No | 27 | 26.7 % |
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