Sens Week Ahead: Oct 10-16

Have you heard the good word of the Maple Leafs saviour, Auston Matthews?

Surely you have, for his word has been spread far and loud like some sort of Toronto’s Saviour’s Network. He has single*-handedly scored to, uh, keep a game from being a 6-0 shutout.

Well, don’t worry if you have not heard the good word - you will, I guarantee it.

The Leafs come out of the preseason looking like advanced stats darlings. Well, as much as a team can be “darlings” with only four games worth of statistics to go off of. Still, it is an indication that we can probably expect a different game from them than we’ve seen in the past few decades.

The Leafs other major off-season acquisition, Frederik Andersen, did not fare so well in pre-season play. In the two games he played that we have records for, he allowed 10 goals on only 55 shots. I’m not quite ready to start the “Leafs bust yet another goalie” train yet, but it’s not a good start.

*Sure, there were two assists on it, but he was the only one to record a goal on the play...

Have you heard the good word of the Canadiens saviour, Carey Price?

(okay, enough of that bit)

The return of a healthy Price to the net once again makes the Canadiens a dangerous team to play against. Sure, it was behind Team Canada, but he came out of the World Cup with a .957 SV% from the round robin and elimination games, and allowed only one goal (And guess who it was that scored on him) in his only preseason game for the Habs. This isn’t just healthy Carey Price, it’s healthy Carey Price in mid-season form.

Not much to go on for the other big shift in the lineup from last season. Shea Weber also only played in one preseason game thanks to the World Cup. For what that single game is worth, the Habs were marginally out-possessed while he was on the ice in an otherwise dominant game, and he was out on the PK (whoops - not the PK I meant, autolinking software) for the only goal against.