Leafs Lineup Appears To Be Set
Posted October 2, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It won’t be official until they submit their roster to the league on Tuesday afternoon, but barring an unforeseen turn of events, the Leafs lineup appears to be set and there aren’t many big surprises.
“Based on all the injuries, I don’t think there’ll be a lot of decisions that have to be made,” head coach Paul Maurice said Monday.
Journeyman defenceman Brad Brown was placed on waivers despite a valiant effort to crack the lineup and Staffan Kronwall, Carlo Colaiacovo and Brendan Bell are all unavailable for the season opener due to injuries.
That opens the way for Ian White, Jay Harrison and Andy Wozniewski to crack the lineup, joining Bryan McCabe, Tomas Kaberle, Hal Gill and Pavel Kubina on the blueline.
Harrison doesn’t mind being a sixth or seventh defenceman.
“You have to start somewhere,” he says. “It’s very difficult to break into the best league in the world and get the same ice time you got at the league below.
“So, I’m willing to put in the time, no matter what it takes, to get my feet wet and to become experienced at this level. If it starts there, that’s where it starts, and you try to progress forward each and every day.”
Early lines look to be Mats Sundin between Kyle Wellwood and Alexei Ponikarovsky, Mike Peca centring Chad Kilger and Alex Steen, John Pohl flanked by Darcy Tucker and Nik Antropov, and Matt Stajan centring Alexander Suglobov and Wade Belak.
Jeff O’Neill, Bates Battaglia and Ben Ondrus are considered extra bodies at this point, but one of them is expected to temporarily fill in for Antropov, who is nursing a hurt ankle.
Captain Mats Sundin says the additions of Peca, Kubina, Gill and Raycroft has filled obvious voids.
“We scored a lot of goals last year but we didn’t keep the puck out of our net,” he said. “I think we addressed our weaknesses over the summer and I think that is going to make us a better team.
“Our penalty killing is definitely going to be better.”
