The honest answer might be: not too many people. Heck, it’s going to be hard trying to convince myself to care about regular season hockey this year considering how poorly things have gone in the postseason for Toronto throughout the Auston Matthews era.
But alas, it’s my job to come up with meaningful takeaways after every Leafs game. That’s not exactly easy when we’re assessing a meaningless preseason game, although there are certain things we can all be looking for when we’re watching these games.
Even though most NHL veterans tend to go through the motions in the first few weeks of training camp, there are legitimate battles for roster spots high up the lineup.