Former Senators expected to make Leafs debut in Ottawa
Before they can leap ahead as Toronto Maple Leafs, it’s back to the future for defencemen Cody Ceci and Ben Harpur.
Toronto’s first two NHL exhibition games Tuesday and Wednesday are against their former Senators teammates and it looks like the pair draw into the second one, Wednesday at Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa. Fellow Leafs John Tavares, Mitch Marner, Kasperi Kapanen, Jason Spezza, Tyson Barrie and Frederik Andersen get first crack here Tuesday at Mile One Centre.
The roster split of 48 players in the two games came down to a number of factors, including the ratio of veterans to rookies under NHL regulations to ice a competitive team at top-dollar ticket prices. But coach Mike Babcock added something innovative, letting those Leafs who scored highest on the training camp fitness tests pick which of the two Ottawa games they wanted to play. Those might have contributed to Ceci and Harpur going in the Wednesday game with Auston Matthews, William Nylander, Andreas Johnsson and defenceman Morgan Rielly. Both of the new Leafs came in the trade that sent Connor Brown and Nikita Zaitsev to the Sens.
“Either way (works),” Ceci said. “If I get the game in Ottawa, then I get to see family and friends again. If I get the game here, I get it out of the way early.
“It will be a little weird, especially the jersey. A lot of the guys I came up with in the Sens organization are gone now, so it won’t be as weird, teammate wise, but
just seeing the jersey and being on the opposite side will be, for sure.”
Harpur said: “I don’t really have control over that (which game he plays) or a preference, but whatever happens, I’ll be ready.”
Ceci will be playing with Rielly, his projected regular-season partner, while Harpur’s opposite number has yet to be determined. Babcock said he didn’t interfere with the selection process after Richard Rotenberg and the sports science staff gave him the fitness scores, even if he thought it better to let Ceci and Harpur play Tuesday.
Babcock and general manager Kyle Dubas are beginning the annual juggling act of seeing as many newcomers as possible in these eight matches, get the veterans some ice time and reward the average campers with a look in home-and-home pre-season dates against Ottawa, Montreal, Detroit and Buffalo.
“They (the stars) will play four times, split squads this week and with an NHL lineup next week as we get ready,” Babcock said “It’s not hard (reaching a roster balance) at the start, but when you try to put more NHL and American league in your second week, then it’s harder to get enough guys in the one game.”
Andersen said he wanted a total of 12 periods of action by the Oct. 2 season opener against Ottawa, including three full games. The idea of load management, which Andersen seems to accept but can’t yet define, points to a lower workload than his 60-plus games of previous seasons, depending on who wins the backup role and how much the No. 2 plays.
“It’s a topic that’s interesting for a lot of people,” Andersen said. “I don’t want to go too far into it. We’ll talk to the sport science guys and coaches when they talk about how many games.”