MONTREAL at TORONTO PRESEASON GAME 10/05/2021 LIVE REACTION

MONTREAL V.S. TORONTO PRESEASON GAME 10/05/2021 Recruited from the KHL, Semyonov has unsurprisingly been the recipient of good opportunities to show his stuff in this exhibition season, including two games alongside Josh Ho-Sang and Michael Bunting and now a look in between Marner and Ritchie. He hasn’t looked out of place skill-wise in terms of his ability to complete plays and get himself into shooting positions while being responsible defensively and playing a prominent role on the penalty kill. Last night in Ottawa, he got himself on the scoresheet for the first time with two third-period assists on both Leaf goals, to go along with his six shots on goal through three preseason games. This will be Semyonov’s fourth-straight preseason appearance tonight — the Leafs are giving him a good hard look, as they promise to do with all KHL recruits, and Semyonov has made a reasonable case for himself so far, with an opportunity to add an exclamation point if he can save his best for tonight’s prime opportunity. Whether or not he gets squeezed out by the numbers game for opening night, the Leafs could mix him in for a few regular-season appearances based on not just the promises made to give him a real opportunity but also on the merits of his performances to date. He is waiver exempt on his one-year entry-level contract, but it’s unlikely he crossed the pond in order to spend much time making $80,000 in the AHL. As for Gusev, it is getting difficult to picture it working out in Toronto. He hasn’t clearly unseated any roster players under contract to date — including Pierre Engvall, who made an impact immediately in his preseason debut last night — and there arguably isn’t a natural fit within the Leafs‘ lineup mix if it’s not an extended look next to Tavares or Matthews. He appears to be redundant on this Leafs team and has been outshone by all of Nick Bunting, Ondrej Kase, Josh Ho-Sang, Pierre Engvall, Kirill Semyonov, and arguably even Michael Amadio and Adam Brooks, but perhaps Leafs brass sees the situation differently. Up front, Ilya Mikheyev will skate with John Tavares and William Nylander, which makes one think he has the edge for the spot for opening night (he’s also played with Tavares before opposite Hyman when he had more offensive success pre-injury back in 2019-20), but Sheldon Keefe cautioned against reading too much into it: SUPPORT THE CHANNEL https://streamlabs.com/crackedscreenproductions1 All Things Wrestling https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfAM4Zs3BIfe7pdHyePpRIw DISCORD https://discord.gg/pQbcwZRnjf 1. No Discrimination Because of Race, Gender, Ethnicity, Religion or Sexuality 2. Don't Be An Asshole 3. No Spamming 4. No Promotion of Yourself or Other Channels Without Permission 5. No Asking For Mod 6. Only Speak English In Chat 7. No Politics, Religion, Football, Sexual/Love or Offensive Comments 8. No Trolling 9. When Asked To Stop Talking About A Topic By A Mod Or Me Stop 10. No Going On Other Accounts To Avoid Timeouts Or Bans To Chat Failing To Follow The Rules Will Result In a Time Out or Ban canadiens,hockey,leafs,nhl, canadiens vs leafs 10/05/21,leafs vs canadiens 10/05/21, canadiens vs maple leafs 10/05/21,maple leafs vs canadiens 10/05/21, maple leafs vs montreal canadiens 10/05/21,montreal canadiens vs maple leafs 10/05/21, toronto maple leafs vs montreal canadiens 10/05/21, canadiens vs leafs 05/10/21,leafs vs canadiens 05/10/21, canadiens vs maple leafs 05/10/21,maple leafs vs canadiens 05/10/21, maple leafs vs montreal canadiens 05/10/21,montreal canadiens vs maple leafs 05/10/21,