After 19 months of playing in an empty building or limited amounts of fans, the Toronto Maple Leafs will be at 100% capacity for the final preseason contest against the Ottawa Senators on Saturday and for the 2021-22 home opener against the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday.
On Friday, Tourism and Culture Minister Lisa MacLeod indicated that capacity limits in the province of Ontario have been lifted, giving the Leafs the all clear to have fans who have been vaccinated in attendance at Scotiabank Arena.
“Throughout the process of re-opening our venues to fans, which included working closely with the Province over many months, health and safety has been our shared top priority and we are overjoyed to see this day arrive when we are able to welcome a full venue to cheer on the Maple Leafs and Raptors,” said Michael Friisdahl, President & CEO of MLSE in a press release. “We are grateful to all levels of government for their partnership in this process and we recognize there will continue to be much work to do together to ensure the safest environment possible for every event attendee and our community. Today, though, is an exciting day for our teams, our fans and our community and we look forward to a safe and enjoyable season.”
Toronto does not have the reputation of being rowdy and boisterous fans for Leafs games, but after an abbreviated regular season and two playoff rounds with no crowd noise and interaction, players are looking forward to a full building next week.
"As players, we're extremely happy about (the decision). I think we're looking forward to having our fans back in the building." Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly said on Saturday. "We missed them a lot last year. If that's the case and that goes through, that's extremely exciting. And we'll look forward to that very much for opening night and onward."
There are still decisions to be made and Saturday will be the last opportunity for players to make their case before the cutdown on Monday. Toronto is already down to their tandem of Jack Campbell and Petr Mrazek in goal, but are likely to shed a pair of blueliners from the eight defensemen still on the roster.
Head coach Sheldon Keefe indicated that Timothy Liljegren and Alex Biega will not play against the Sens, so the group that many believe will be the starting six (Rielly, TJ Brodie, Jake Muzzin, Justin Holl, Travis Dermott and Rasmus Sandin) will be in the lineup.
Auston Matthews and Adam Brooks will not play in the exhibition finale. David Kampf will play on the top line with Nick Ritchie and Mitch Marner, John Tavares will center Ilya Mikheyev and William Nylander, Alex Kerfoot will line up with Michael Bunting and Ondrej Kase and the fourth line will consist of Jason Spezza at center with Pierre Engvall and Wayne Simmonds on the wing.
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