The quest for all players to get into game shape and some to prove themselves or make an impression begins in earnest tonight as the Senators will face their provincial rival Maple Leafs in a pair of home and home, split squad games.
I like the idea of split squad games (even if we can only see one of them), and obviously the Senators have learned from their mistake of a couple of years ago. For the second straight year play this split squad games at the beginning of the preseason as opposed to the end when they faced the Islanders in Ottawa and Barrie in 2013. At that point of the camp most of the spare bodies were gone and they had already split into Ottawa and Binghamton camps and it proved disruptive for all involved as the last preseason games both franchises would play.
LEAFS @ SENATORS
There are plenty of bodies around this time around, and the home roster was released yesterday afternoon. Craig Anderson will start in Ottawa, and Matt O'Connor will play the second half.
The roster lists 7 defensemen: Karlsson, Chabot, Cowen, Wideman, Kostka, Claesson and Mullen of which 6 will suit up.
The 12 forwards that will play will come from the group of 15 listed on the roster: Ryan, Turris, Michalek, Prince, MacArthur, Lindberg, O'Dell, Neil, Dzingel, Pageau, Guptill, Zay, Alex Wideman, Ewanyk and McCormick.
Chabot was practicing with Karlsson in the opening days of camp, and he will likely line up alongside him tonight to give him a taste of the good life. Then I would imagine he (as well as the other handful of junior aged players) could get sent back to Saint John as early as tomorrow to continue his development with the Sea Dogs, who are already 4 games into their season. Playing with Karlsson and having his first camp under his belt will have been a positive experience, but he needs to get into real game action as soon as he can to be a dominant junior player and work his way onto Team Canada's roster for the World Juniors.
SENATORS @ LEAFS
Andrew Hammond will get the start in Toronto, with Chris Driedger playing the second half.
As you would expect, a slightly lesser known (but definitely larger) traveling roster will include 7 blueliners: Ceci, Wiercioch, Borowiecki, Rutkowski, Harpur, Lepine and Tuzzolino.
The forwards will come from: Zibanejad, Puempel, Hoffman, Greening, Paul, Chiasson, Smith, Perron, Dunn, Hobbs, Stortini, Dziurzynski, Schneider, Chlapik and Penny.
Every player going to Toronto is at least 6' tall, with every defenseman being at least 6'2" and over 200 lbs.
A bit of a concern yesterday as Marc Methot left Sunday's scrimmage with a slight injury, and although it is precautionary he won't play in either game tonight, and there is certainly no reason to force it with so many bodies around. The Senators need him 100% healthy for October 8th, not September 21st, and there is no need to worry quite yet about his health.
If you thought the Senators camp of 61 players (minus 3 injured) was big, the Leafs had a massive roster of 69 players at their Halifax training camp. They cut 16 players yesterday, assigning 10 to the Marlies and sending 6 back to junior, and still have 53 players in camp. There was no official word that I could find about who would be playing where today, but they will skate in two groups this morning in Toronto before the second group leaves for Ottawa. You can bet that they will follow the Senators lead and ice a more "star-studded" roster at home Toronto and send more of the lesser lights to Ottawa.
The rebuilding Leafs will be certainly auditioning a lot of players for different roles, with many spots up for grabs and not really a lot of legitimate top 6 forwards on that roster right now. They have a number of players in camp on tryouts, and the likes of Devin Setoguchi, Brad Boyes and Curtis Glencross will be looking to make an impression and fill some top 6 minutes by showing a scoring touch. Even new coach Mike Babcock wondered aloud last week where the goals would come from for the Leafs, so if one or two of those guys can light the lamp it will go a long way to earning them a contract.
Just another step in the path to getting to opening night and real hockey!