Toronto Maple Leafs Ottawa Senators: Preseason Is Underway

A glorious day in Toronto, not only weather wise, but sports wise as Hockey, albeit preseason, has returned to the Air Canada Centre.

It's been a long wait for hockey fans and now getting a glimpse of some of the new-look Leafs in their crisp new-look uniforms is a thrill indeed though the score wasn't.

The Air Canada centre sang the national anthem all together without musical accompaniment, perhaps an attempt at getting a usually lack lustre crowd pumped early. Yet no sooner had the anthem finished and to my shock, horror, and disbelief they played the pathetic Leafs song"Go Leafs Go..this is Canada's team..blah blah blah! Alan Frew HAS GOT TO GO! Get it through your heads, IT'S SO WEAK! Scuse the minor rant.

Notables: Players missing:

Forwards:Nikolai Kulemin, Phil Kessel, Mikail Grabovski, Luca Caputi, Tyler Bozak, Fredrik Sjostrom, Colton Orr, Clarke MacArthur, John Mitchell

Defence:Francois Beuachemin, Mike Komisarek, Luke Schenn, Jeff Finger.

Goalie-J.S. Giguere

Nazem Kadri,Jerry D'Amigo and Brett Lebda got their feet wet.

Most likely Marlies that got to play: Forwards: Ryan Hamilton, Marcel Mueller, Brayden Irwin, Jay Rosehill, Joey Crabb, and Mike Zigomanis.

Defence: Simon Gysbers, Matt Lashoff.

Goalie:Jussi Rynas (got in the game in the second period just under 7 minutes left.)

Previous to the game starting head coach Ron Wilson talked about his team having to play five games back to back and seven games in nine nights for the preseason and he mentioned how happy he was with how well prepared his team is, referring to their conditioning.

The battle of Ontario was renewed in the first game of the preseason and the Leafs fell two nothing in the first on goals from Jesse Winchester and Nick Foligno.

Foligno beat Toronto's newly appointed Captain Dion Phaneuf to the outside and then buried the puck over goalie Jonas Gustavsson's left shoulder, who was down a touch early.

Last year the Leafs surrendered the first goal in 52 of 82 games.

As the period ended Jay Rosehill dropped the gloves with Sens 22 year old Zack Smith trying to send a wake up call to his team and get them fired up.

The Leafs were out shot 17-5 and outscored 2-0.

After a bunch of unsuccessful 5 on 4 and 5 on 3 power plays in the second period and with another 5 on 4 advantage up coming Ron Wilson said "I want some more puck movement between our defence and some traffic in front of the net."

Teams haven't had a lot of time to work on the power play yet and this was evident while watching the Leafs.

Jonas Gustavsson came out of the game around the 13 minute mark and was replaced by 23 year old Finnish goalie Jussi Rynnas.

Rynnas looked great initially while being tested just seconds after he got in the game, but gave up a goal minutes later on a shot by Corey Locke that he didn't have much of a chance on.

Three nothing Sens after two periods but the Leafs did make a come back in the shots department.

Just over three minutes into the third period 5'11" 201 lbs Mike Brown who was physical throughout, layed a thundering hit on defenceman Chris Campoli, 6'4 234lbs Tim Spencer took exception to this.

Brown lived up to his billing as a guy who will drop them with anyone and did just that with Spencer, holding his own in a mismatched bout.

Sens Chris Neil and Chris Kelly scored in the third to make it a five nothing final.

But with under two minutes left a surprise fight Christian Hanson his first in my memory dropped the gloves with a smaller Brian Lee.

The Leafs went 0 for 8 on the power play including three five on three advantages, while the Sens went one for four during their power play chances.

What can we take from this? Not much, the Leafs were 7-2 last preseason and then started the season with eight straight losses before cracking the win column.

The Leafs coaching staff obviously wants a look at some of the younger guys before finalizing their roster.

The Leafs certainly represented their general manger Brian Burke well with a spirited effort in the body checking department.

The pressure is squarely focused on head coach Wilson, as Burke has put some of the right parts together to bring this storied franchise out of the basement where they have become accustomed to be sitting come playoff time.

Don't fret Leafs Nation, this was only a test!