The eighth and final game of the 2017 pre-season will be played tonite at the Ricoh Coliseum.  For some on this roster, it will be the final game they play with the Maple Leafs before heading to the AHL, back overseas, and possibly waived.

Leaf lines
Leivo-Aaltonen-Kapanen
Greening-Smith-Grundstrom
Soshnikov-Fehr-Johnsson
T.Moore-Mueller-Rychel#tmltalk

— Paul Hendrick (@HennyTweets) September 30, 2017

Leaf pairings
Dermott-Polak
Nielsen-Carrick
Loverde-Liljegren #TMLtalk

— Paul Hendrick (@HennyTweets) September 30, 2017

Now the positives that I can take from this lineup is very limited.  I wish I could be more optimistic, and I will still watch the game but let us bring on the regular season.

The first interesting aspect of the game is Roman Polak.  The monster from the Czech Republic is coming off of a gruesome leg fracture suffered during last seasons playoff run and will see his first ‘game action’ of the 2017-18 season.

Many are interested to see where his conditioning and stamina are at this point of the year, and can he earn something more tangible than just a PTO with the Leafs?

Polak is partnered with my other must-see, Travis Dermott.  In my opinion, Dermott has been one of the best defencemen who is auditioning for the 6th and final spot with the Leafs this year.  Wait, in fact, he has been one of the best defencemen period.

I understand the waivers, and I understand he can always use some big minutes with the Marlies but I believe he did everything asked by the Coaching staff and then some during this audition.

Andrew Nielsen and Timothy Liljegren will both be heading to the Marlies.  However, it is still great to see them versus NHL forwards just to see where their progression is.  I believe that Liljegren would have had more reps with these Leafs if it weren’t for the emergence of Calle Rosen, and Andreas Borgman.

Speaking of Andreas Borgman did you see how jacked this character is?  Pretty sure he owns a Ninja Blender from Best Buy.

Borgman is kinda jacked, right? #Leafs pic.twitter.com/eBh81voEPn

— Leafs Hub (@LeafsHub) September 29, 2017

Up front, the interesting names are Miro Aaltonen, Carl Grundstrom, Nikita Soshnikov, and Kasperi Kapanen.

All four of these hockey players are NHL ready, in my opinion.  These guys have proven that they can play at that level, and a few of them (Grundstrom and Kapanen) could crack the Top 6 on this team in the future, and on some NHL teams right now.

Because of a log jam within the organization when it comes to talent, yup I am still talking about the Maple Leafs, they will have to play in Europe or with the Marlies.

I am still holding out hope that Uncle Lou Lamoriello can come to an agreement with Carl Grundstrom‘s team in Sweden that will allow him to play with the Marlies this season to fine tune his North American style .

There you have it kids, the end of another pre-season.

Thanks for being a part of things here at Leafs Hub…..and Go Leafs Go !!

Coach Babcock Game Day Skate.