Ice Chips: Leafs' Tavares to make preseason debut Wednesday vs. Sabres
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Toronto Maple Leafs
Toronto Maple Leafs captain John Tavares will make his preseason debut on Wednesday against the Buffalo Sabres, head coach Sheldon Keefe told reports on Monday. Tavares sat out Sunday's 3-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators and will not play in Monday's rematch at Scotiabank Arena.
Tavares is doing individual work at Monday's practice and previously worked with assistant coach Guy Boucher alongside John Klingberg, Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and William Nylander on the power play unit.
The 33-year-old scored 36 goals and added 44 assists in 80 regular season games last season. He added four goals and eight points in 11 postseason games, including the series-winning goal in overtime in Game 6 of the team's first-round series against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Leafs skated with the following lines at Monday's practice:
Bertuzzi-Matthews-Marner
Abruzzese-Holmberg-Robertson
Gregor-Kampf-Reaves
Blandisi-Cowan-Tverberg
O’Brien
McCabe-Klingberg
Giordano-Kokkinen
Rifai-Niemela
Brodie-Pietronio
Woll
Jones
Ottawa Senators
Forward Vladimir Tarasenko is expected to make his preseason debut Monday against the Maple Leafs after signing a one-year, $5million contract with the Senators this past offseason. He is projected to play on the first line alongside Ridly Greig and Drake Batherson.
The rest of the Senators projected lineup:
Tarasenko - Greig - Batherson
Kubalik - Jarventie - Joseph
Crookshank - Ostapchuk - Reinhardt
Imama - Pilon - Currie
Chychrun - Chabot
Larsson - Thomson
Hamara - Guenette
Sogaard
Merilainen
Edmonton Oilers
Defenceman Beau Akey has been assigned to the OHL's Barrie Colts, the team announced. He played his first preseason game with the club on Sunday.
"You can see why he was drafted where he was," Head Coach Jay Woodcroft said of the 56th-overall pick "He has poise, he's competitive, he made a lot of really good plays with the puck and was unafraid of the stage. That's a good sign for our team."
Rishaug also reports that Woodcroft says he is interested in Darnell Nurse and Evan Bouchard as a potential longer term defensive pair. Bouchard played with Mattias Ekholm at the ends of last season.
Defenceman Philip Broberg left the ice early on Monday but Woodcroft says the defenceman is healthy.
The Oilers lines at Monday's morning skate ahead of Monday's preseason game against the Winnipeg Jets:
Erne-Malone-Lavoie
Holloway-McKegg-Griffith
Stonehouse-Grubbe-Bourgault
Petrov-Berglund-Tullio
Kambietz
Kulak-Ceci
Hoeffenmayer-Desharnais
Dineen-Wanner
Kemp
Pickard
Rodrigue
New Jersey Devils
The Devils are sending the following team to Montreal for tonight's preseason game against the Canadiens, according to Devils reporter Amanda Stein.
Forwards:
J. Hughes, Toffoli, Mercer, Clarke, N. Foote, Mercer, Tierney, Nosek, Lazar, Willman, Gambardella, Dowling Criscuolo.
Defence:
Nemec, Vilen, Marino, Siegenthaler, Miller, Vukojevic
Goalies
Schmid, Kinkaid
Detroit Red Wings
The Red Wings announced Monday that forward Emmitt Finnie was assigned to the WHL's Kamloops Blazers, while forwards Dean Loukus and Nic Sima were released from from their amateur tryouts.