Home » Leafs/Wings Pre-Game: Gustavsson Debuts, Leafs Lineup

Leafs/Wings Pre-Game: Gustavsson Debuts, Leafs Lineup

by on September 25, 2009 in Uncategorized - 337 Comments

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Jonas Gustavsson will make his much anticipated debut for the Maple Leafs in tonight’s preseason tilt against Detroit.  Coach Ron Wilson has indicated that he will be in there for at least the first period, but that the staff wants to break him in slowly.  If Toronto does not get barraged in the first twenty minutes as they have in recent exhibition matches, the Monster’s tenure may stretch to a period and a half.

The Swedish tender’s role on this team for the immediate future will likely be defined in this back-to-back with the Red Wings.  While the Leafs brass are saying all the right things with respect to the possibility of Joey MacDonald sliding into the position of Vesa Toskala’s backup, it would truthfully take an awful showing on Gustavsson’s part for him to be relegated to third-string netminder.  That’s not to take away from MacDonald’s excellent play in his brief time with the Leafs, but this is Gustavsson’s spot to lose.

Here are the lineups for tonight:

Maple Leafs Lineup

FORWARDS
Jiri Tlusty – Mikhail Grabovski – Nikolai Kulemin
Viktor Stalberg – Tyler Bozak – Christian Hanson
Rickard Wallin – John Mitchell – Lee Stempniak
Jay Rosehill – Nazem Kadri – Wayne Primeau

DEFENCE
Francois Beauchemin – Luke Schenn
Carl Gunnarsson – Garnet Exelby
Andy Rogers – Jonas Frogren

GOALIES
Vesa Toskala
Jonas Gustavsson

Red Wings Lineup

FORWARDS
Johan Franzen-Pavel Datsyuk-Tomas Holmstrom
Todd Bertuzzi-Valtteri Filppula-Dan Cleary
Kris Draper-Justin-Abdelkader-Mattias Ritola
Brad May-Kris Newbury-Francis Pare

DEFENCE
Nick Lidstrom-Brian Rafalski
Niklas Kronwall-Brad Stuart
Brett Lebda-Jonathan Ericsson

GOALIES
Chris Osgood
Jimmy Howard

Cheers,

Nikhil

[email protected]

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  • TuckerThomas

    @ everyone who’s against the kids staying
    Where are you all tonight??

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  • Leafswillwincupsoon

    Kadri= a young and promising Doug Gilmour.
    Hansen = maybe a Dave Andreychuck.
    Bozak = Does he remind anyone of a young Stevie Y. Skill wise
    Stalberg = Afuture superstar in the league. Maybe i’m delusional but I cannot recall how promising our future looks. And i haven’t even said anything about Gustuffson and Kessel

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  • Blue Max

    @TuckerThomas
    …can I second that? Let the fat go!

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  • ionsys

    Stajan-

    does anyone see a team or teams that might be very interested in trading for him next 10days?

    eg-someone mentioned LA awhile back

    seems obvious to me that 2-4 of the top 9 vets will not be around by the draft—but might you get more for them now?–or are all teams already set?

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  • Leafswillwincupsoon

    For development sake Kadri has to go down. He has to grow more physically. I think Stalberg can stay but Hanson and Bozak can START down in the ahl. Whats the rush?

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  • captain morgan

    The kids better be there TT…or I’m going hairy-kerry!!!! Kadri should go back to junior this year and Hanson down to the AHL, as he is close, but not quite there yet…the other two do well this year with the Leafs!!!

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  • ionsys

    i keep remembering a comment that 1 gm very recently made to Ek…assuming Ek quoted him correctly–gg—to the effect that ‘up to 10 trades will likely be made by the start of the season’
    so far, nothing

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  • Leafswillwincupsoon

    Stajan is staying .Everybody let it go 70 to 80 pts this year wait and see.

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  • wags31

    Plain and simple , have seen a more exciting player than Kadri to wear the blue and white since Dougy Gilmour, even if he stays for the first nine games than goes back to Jr. everyone must agree he is a huge, huge part of the Leafs future, can’t wait to see Stalberg, Kadri, Kessel as our first line. Hanson,Bozak, and Kulemin on the second line. Get Stajan wear he belongs (he is like Rob Neidermayer) on the third line. We have our top six finaly, thanks BB…

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  • lescott

    Stajan will never be a point per game player…. are you kidding? 70 is pushing it. He’s a third- liner.

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  • lescott

    It’s a goddamned miracle he got 60…

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  • Blue Max

    @Leafswillwincupsoon
    “Bozak = Does he remind anyone of a young Stevie Y. Skill wise”
    Shades of Gilmour? Saw the play were he was down and out behind the net, yet he still managed to get the puck off to someone? Shades of Gilmour? I said this long ago, and I’m standing by it, that Bozak reminds me of Gilmour like no other player, and Dougie is my all-time favourite Leaf player, besides Wendel.

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  • TuckerThomas

    Bozak had already earned a spot before tonight. Hanson to the Marlies. Stalberg earned a spot tonight. If Kadri gets the opportunity to play these last two pre season games, which he should, and continues his outstanding play he gets a spot too. Sucks for Burke but a good sucky situation to be in if he considers all. Kadri has too much of an upside. Sure he needs to grow, but he is still able to perform. There are guys who can manhandle with the best of them, BUT they can’t perform. I could see if Kadri was getting dominated cause of his size, but he isn’t. He is able to go pretty much anywhere he pleases and always has his head up. I can only see him getting better each and every shift in the NHL as he is already. He dominates all other centers on this team in the face off circle. He has already shown passing abilities of a future star. His hands are as sweet as Maple Sugar…
    he is doing everything in his power right now to prove he is ready in the NHL. Most wanna hold him back and I get their reasoning… BUT he hasn’t shown his size is a factor one bit yet. Not one bit.

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  • Scot Loucks

    Why is everybody willing to rush these kids into the lineup? Leafs history shows that they have destroyed more careers by rushing players into the big time, with big expectations than they have in creating home grown stars.
    .
    Why is everybody is such a hurry to dump assets?
    .
    Damien Cox actually had a decent article today covering this same point.
    .
    Kadri needs to go back to junior and dominate this year. He needs to lead his Knights and he needs to lead during the WJC. The Hunter brothers in London have been churning out top notch players for a while now, and Kadri certainly isn’t going to suffer any set backs playing for them.
    .
    Players like Bozak, Stalberg, Hanson, Gunnarsson, Rosehill won’t be hurt by playing a starring roll for the Marlies, at least to start the season. My bet is that all of them play some games with the Leafs this year. I’d also bet that the team that starts the season will have at least 5 or 6 players that won’t be there at the end of the regular season.
    .
    Patience people… The future is bright… trust The Burke and Ron Wilson to get us there properly.
    .
    Cheers

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  • lescott

    Letting these kids play would be almost as bad as letting Schenn play, because everyone knows it takes defensemen longer to mature. I mean look at Schenn now, he’s fucked, he’ll never be the NHL star he could have been….

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  • lescott

    not to mention most of them are in their early twenties… and only the best amongst them is 18.

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  • lescott

    You can play the kids in junior and the AHL all you want but nothing prepares them for the NHL like the NHL. We want to ‘rush’ these kids because we want to see good hockey, and we want to see the Leafs win. I also want to see the Leafs we don’t need dished off for something we do.
    .
    Sorry Scot, usually I agree with you. Maybe all of these kids shouldn’t stay up but some of them surely should.

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  • Blue Max

    @lescott
    “You can play the kids in junior and the AHL all you want but nothing prepares them for the NHL like the NHL.”
    .
    That pretty well sums it up! Thanks!

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  • Scot Loucks

    lescott;
    .
    It’s not that we disagree. I think that Stalberg and Bozak have both earned a longer look. Gunnarsson as well.
    .
    I just don’t think it’s going to be October when they get that longer look. I think one of them may stick if the Leafs decide to send Tlusty down…. probably Stalberg.
    .
    I think the Leafs will start with pretty much a veteran line up. But remember how many players they went through last year due to injury. I think the message to the guys going down will be “work hard and make yourself a player that can’t be kept down in the AHL”.
    .
    All I know for sure is this is the most excited I have been about the Leafs future prospects in a long long time.
    .
    Cheers

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  • Potsy

    Great game tonight. i don’t recall the leafs cupboard ever looking this full with forward prospects.

    grabo tlusty kulemin looked like a real good line tonight

    Stahlberg is far and away the most NHL ready of the new guys. He has A+ NHL speed, great hands and good size. If i had to pick only one out him Bozak and hanson, He is the one I’m keeping. Kadri played well but his mistake lead to the first det goal.

    Wilson has given these young guys every opportunity to shine (at the expense of veterans) and they have.

    burke Wilson and co. have made this team, younger Bigger Strong Meaner and Faster all at the same time.

    And we still haven’t seen Kessel play yet!

    Even if they start the entire frat pack with the marlies I am really excited about the direction our team is headed

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  • LeafsRyan.

    Theres a difference between kadri Tlusty then bozak stalberg. I wouldn’t consider bozak and stalberg kids as they are 23. A year of AHL maybe benifical but I think I think they would be able to suceed. Stalberg needs to make this team. Bozak will hopefully make it too.
    .
    Kulemin Grabovski Ponikarsvsky
    Hagman Bozak Blake
    Wallin Mitchel Stalberg
    Rosehill Priemau Orr

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  • Scot Loucks
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  • captain morgan

    @Scott
    I totally disagree here too pal….these kids know how to play (Bozak and Stalberg)….they don’t need to go and here it in a different league…oh, by the way, they aern’t kids, they’re men…sending someone down to mature is fine, but to teach them what you want, keep them and teach them what you want yourself….plus they deserve it and they are better than some of the pylons taking up space on the roster right now!!!

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  • lescott

    some kids have a sharp learning curve and they need to be challenged. If they know what it is they are going to take out of a junior or AHL environment then you send them back for what? so they get complacent? So they learn how to play a lesser brand of hockey against lesser opponents and with different spacing and timing?

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  • ionsys

    i see bozak and stalberg both making leafs oct 1-hansen sent dn

    kadri sent back to ohl–only question is ‘does he get 5 games here first’–that’s a toss up because
    at the margin an extra 1-2 pts won very early due to him might be enough to get 8th
    5 games against non-hammering teams is a pittance

    i see both kuli and tlusty sent dn after sunday’s final game.

    i see wallin being 13th F

    i see -by mid nov (kessel) – either stajan or poni or stempy traded for picks/prospects or one of stempy or blake waived–either that or go with 14f and 7d into the trade deadline instead of 13 and 8

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