Canadiens' Pregame: Montreal vs. Toronto

5 days ago
Canadiens

This is it. After nearly five months there will finally be some hockey played at the Bell Centre today. With three days of testing and training under their belt, the Montreal Canadiens prospects will be taking on the Maple Leafs prospects this afternoon at 1:00 PM ET.

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Those who will make it to the game will get to experience the spectacular new scoreboard first hand as they'll see crisper replays than they've ever seen. That won't be the main attraction however. The Habs faithful are more likely to have made the trip downtown to see the likes of Lane Hutson, Logan Mailloux and David Reinbacher in action.

Judging by what we've seen at rookie camp so far, the lineup should be as follows:

Sean Farrell-Owen Beck-Emil Heineman
Riley Kidney-Filip Mesar-Jared Davidson
Luke Tuch-Florian Xhekaj-Tyler Thorpe
Israel Mianscum-Justin Larose-Charles Savoie

Lane Hutson-Logan Mailloux
Adam Engstrom-David Reinbacher
Owen Protz-Simon Motew

Samuel Richard - Quentin Miller

Since Miller has an upper body injury, he may not be able to take part and tryout goaltender Matteo Drobac may just draw in as the backup. According to Mathieu Paradis from Tout sur le hockey, it's a shoulder injury which will require surgery and sideline the goalie for five months.

As for the Maple Leafs, they have published the lineup bellow but you can cross out their first-round pick at the last draft. Ben Danford suffered an apparent head injury in a scrimmage on Thursday and wasn't on the ice on Friday.

The hit was delivered by free agent invitee Marshall Finnie and it has some Maple Leafs fans up in arms. It must not be forgotten that hockey is a physical game and some players' physicality is one of their best attributes, so they need to display it. Had Arber Xhekaj not played a physical game when he was invited to the Canadiens camp, he never would have been signed as a free agent.

Related: Canadiens: Rookie Camp Day 3

The Maple Leafs also received devastating news yesterday when it was revealed their performance coach Greg Harden had passed. Harden was 75 years old and had been working with Toronto for three years. He was a well-known life coach who had worked with numerous high profile athletes including Tom Brady, Michael Phelps and Desmond Howard. His family let it be known that he passed due to complications from surgery.

Related

Canadiens: Rookie Camp Day 2
Canadiens Rookie Camp Starts with Physical Testing

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