Leafs struggle in Mile One exhibition
The Toronto Maple Leafs game against the Ottawa Senators at Mile One September 27th wasn’t a great night if you cheered for the Blue and White. The Leafs, who didn’t arrive in St. John’s until 4:30 am that morning after playing in Ottawa the night before, looked like a team in a fog as the Sens, led by Jason Spezza and Daniel Alfredsson, beat the Leafs handily 5-1. Mikael Tellqvist was the Leafs player of the game, but he didn’t get a lot of help. The game featured few highlights for Toronto fans (except for a couple of big hits by Darcy Tucker as well as some fights).Firing a lowly 13 shots at Sens goalie Martin Prusek on the night, Alexander Mogilny scored the lone Leaf goal, the first goal by a Toronto Maple Leaf at Mile One. Hall of Fame goalie (and Leafs executive) Ken Dryden and new Leafs GM John Ferguson Jr. were present for the contest.
After the game, Toronto assigned 16 players to St.
John’s. They include goaltenders Mike Minard,
Sebastien Centomo and JF Racine; Defensemen Marc Moro,
Jay Harrison, Regan Kelly, Brendan Bell, David Turon
along with forwards Josh Holden, Aaron Gavey, the
injured Harold Druken, Luca Cereda, Kyle Wellwood,
Robb Palahnuk, Nathan Barrett and Jeff Daw.
Defenseman Chris Chartier has also joined St. John’s
and some players from Memphis including two-time CHL
MVP Don Parsons, Kahlil Thomas and Jay Neal (the River
Kings top three scorers last season) will play an
exhibition game in Corner Brook Thursday night as well
as games in Gander and at Mile One.
Perrott shines
Nathan Perrott has been playing extremely well in Toronto’s training camp. However, it doesn’t look like he’ll be sticking in Toronto especially with tough guys Wade Belak and Tie Domi already there. The team did protect the rugged winger ahead of costly veteran centers Travis Green and Robert Reichel for this Friday’s waiver draft, so it’s clear that Perrott has made a memorable first impression on the Leafs management.Notes
6,247 people paid $80 each to see the exhibition game.
Kyle Wellwood looks awfully small and maybe that’s why
he was ticketed for St. John’s. That being said, he
played alright in the Toronto exhibition game. Pierre
Hedin, on the other hand, was responsible for a huge
gaffe that led to a Sens goal.
Leaf fans are ecstatic to see goalie Mike Minard back
in the Leaf fold. But how long he’ll stay is anyone’s
guess. If Jamie Hodson is sent down, which is probably
likely, it might bump Minard out of the picture as
Sebastien Centomo looks to rebound from a disastrous
year last season. The goaltending glut will only get worse
when Trevor Kidd returns from his knee injury, and Tellqvist is sent down to the Rock.
