It's crunch time as the roster has been reduced to 29 players. With the Maple Leafs still needing to trim the roster by six, the interesting choices will be what happens with Jake Gardiner, Matt Frattin and Nazem Kadri who have all had varying degrees of success this preseason.
Kadri and Frattin bring very different games and are competing for the same spot on LW. Judging by the lines in practice over the weeks, it seems the coaches are giving Kadri every opportunity to show what he can do. Tonight he'll be on a line with Phil Kessel and Joffrey Lupul so there should be plenty of opportunity to contribute offensively.
There's also questions swirling around the play of Keith Aulie, who had a strong showing last season, but has failed to make a big enough impact in preseason. With the ability to send him down to the AHL without passing through waivers, it won't be a surprise to see him start there.
These next three preseason games will be more telling then any about these rookies. They'll see more NHL ready lineups and how they handle those match-ups may determine their fate to start the season. The next likely cuts are Joey Crabb, Matt Lashoff and Ben Scrivens... after that it seems like it's between Aulie, Gardiner, Frattin and Kadri - and that's where things get difficult.
Here are the projected lineups for tonight:
Ottawa
Colin Greening - Jason Spezza - Nikita Filatov
Nick Foligno - Peter Regin - Eric Condra
Mike Hoffman - Mika Zibanejad - Bobby Butler
Kaspar Daugavins - Zack Smith - Chris Neil
Sergei Gonchar - Mark Borowiecki
Jared Cowen - Erik Karlsson
David Rundblad - Brian Lee
Robin Lehner
Mike McKenna
Toronto
Joffrey Lupul - Nazem Kadri - Phil Kessel
Nikolai Kulemin - Mikhail Grabovski - Clarke MacArthur
Matt Frattin - Daryl Boyce - Colby Armstrong
Jay Rosehill - Philippe Dupuis - Colton Orr
Joey Crabb
Carl Gunnarsson - Dion Phaneuf
John Michael Liles - Luke Schenn
Keith Aulie - Cody Franson
James Reimer
Ben Scrivens
Notes:
...Reimer is expected to play the entire game....as is Robin Lehner....Tim Connolly and Tyler Bozak remain out of the lineup due to minor injuries...Mike Brown and Matt Lombardi have had full practices with the team, both are likely to start on the 4th line when the return with Lombardi likely moving up as he adjusts....Scratches include Mike Komisarek, Jake Gardiner, Matt Lashoff and one of Colton Orr/Joey Crabb....Puck drops at 7:30pm on Leafs TV. Check out the game thread at Hockey's Future - Toronto Maple Leafs Forum to find live-streams of the game....Here's the list of those at Maple Leafs Training Camp List....
