{"id":198369,"date":"2025-10-08T20:31:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T20:31:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/198369\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T20:31:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T20:31:06","slug":"maple-leafs-open-new-nhl-season-vs-canadiens-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/198369\/","title":{"rendered":"Maple Leafs open new NHL season vs. Canadiens"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Four Canadian teams make their debuts tonight on Day 2 of the 2025-26 NHL season.<\/p>\n<p>The day\u2019s schedule features two classic all-Canadian rivalries as the Edmonton Oilers welcome the Calgary Flames and the Toronto Maple Leafs host the Montreal Canadiens.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/nhl\/article\/maple-leafs-recall-easton-cowan-send-jacob-quillan-to-ahl\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Maple Leafs begin the season looking for an elusive deep playoff run<\/a>, but they will have to do it without departed star forward Mitch Marner. Goalie Joseph Woll is not with the team as he tends to a personal matter, and Scott Laughton is out with a lower-body injury.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/hockey\/nhl\/players\/easton-cowan\/bd3a8c57-6a6b-45fe-b152-dcb33dc04321\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Easton Cowan<\/a>\u00a0is with the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/hockey\/nhl\/teams\/toronto-maple-leafs\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a>\u00a0on opening day, but he won\u2019t see any game action.<\/p>\n<p>The top prospect\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/LeafsPR\/status\/1975909091437613401\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">was recalled<\/a>\u00a0from the AHL\u2019s Toronto Marlies ahead of the Maple Leafs\u2019 season opener against the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday (Sportsnet and Sportsnet+, 7 p.m. ET).<\/p>\n<p>However, head coach Craig Berube\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/dalter\/status\/1975944711413399958\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">told reporters<\/a>\u00a0that he would be a healthy scratch.<\/p>\n<p>In a corresponding move, fellow forward\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/hockey\/nhl\/players\/jacob-quillan\/6e10b8ea-b0b7-41a0-b699-c4daa1fb9018\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jacob Quillan<\/a>\u00a0was sent down to the AHL.<\/p>\n<p>General manager Brad Treliving said Tuesday that the goal of sending Cowan down was to give him consistent playing time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s not on the roster today and we\u2019ll see what happens tomorrow,\u201d Treliving told reporters. \u201cHe\u2019s right there ready to play for us. We want to manage it appropriately. If he\u2019s going to be playing with us here, great. But if not, I want him playing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Canadiens, meanwhile, surprised many by making the playoffs last season and will be looking to take the next step with a talented young core.<\/p>\n<p>The Oilers, who finished runner-up to Florida in the last two Stanley Cup finals, enter the season as a championship favourite and are on a high after superstar captain <a href=\"https:\/\/toronto.citynews.ca\/2025\/10\/06\/connor-mcdavid-edmonton-oilers-extension-nhl\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Connor McDavid signed a team-friendly contract extension<\/a> to keep him in Edmonton another two years.<\/p>\n<p>Their Alberta rivals from Calgary also enter the season with high hopes, looking to build on a positive 2024-25 season that saw them narrowly miss the playoffs.<\/p>\n<p>Canada\u2019s other three teams play their first games tomorrow as the Ottawa Senators visit Tampa Bay, the Winnipeg Jets welcome Dallas, and the Vancouver Canucks entertain Calgary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four Canadian teams make their debuts tonight on Day 2 of the 2025-26 NHL season. The day\u2019s schedule&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-198369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}