Hall of Fame weekend is here.
As we all know by now, that includes a rare Friday night home game for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
In fact, the Leafs are set to host a back-to-back at home —against Detroit and Montreal, respectively.
At any rate, we kicked off the Friday edition of Leafs Morning Take by quickly discussing this weird movement to try and cancel Wayne Gretzky for his political beliefs. Ridiculous!
After that, we dissected the AHL conditioning stints for Connor Dewar and Jani Hakanpaa. On Thursday, Craig Berube disclosed that they will play in the back-to-back this weekend in Charlotte for the Marlies. Then, the Leafs will inevitably have some roster decisions to make. Suffice it is to say, we could see some waiver activity early next week, or perhaps a trade.
Meantime, courtesy of Prime Video, we previewed the busy weekend for Berube and company. First and foremost, it was announced that Auston Matthews will not play against the Red Wings. That said, he wasn’t officially ruled out for the Habs game, so we’ll see on that front. Additionally, we also broke down this year’s Hockey Hall of Fame class. And it’s outstanding. Pavel Datsyuk, Jeremy Roenick, Shea Weber, David Poile, Colin Campbell, Natalie Darwitz, and Krissy Wendell will be honoured prior to puck drop on Friday night. Furthermore, we talked about the goaltending match up, and obviously Toronto’s power play, too. Can they build up the 3-for-7 showing against Boston? We’ll see.
Montreal’s in town on Saturday night. Can the Leafs avenge the 1-0 shutout loss in the season opener? Also, will we see a Reaves/Xhekaj scrap? Personally, I’ll be watching Joseph Woll very closely. He’s been so-so in the three appearances he’s made to start his year.
To wrap, via Square, we took a look at the up-to-date Atlantic Division standings. In summary, Florida remains a wagon. Aside from that, things are very clumpy in the division right now. That’s why these four-point divisional games are so important. We’ll see what Toronto has in them this weekend!
Regardless of what happens, we’ll be back on Monday at 11 AM ET to break it all down. Talk then!
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