Leafs name starters for tonight and Saturday's games following poorly attended morning skate

According to Leafs beat reporter David Alter, only 11 skaters attended today's morning skate, including John Tavares, Michael Bunting, Zach Aston-Reese, Alexander Kerfoot, Pontus Holmberg, Alex Steeves, David Kampf, Sam Lafferty, Mark Giordano, Conor Timmins and Erik Gustafsson. I know these skates are listed as "optional", but you'd think that after Saturday's embarrassment on Hockey Night in Canada, the players themselves would have made it a priority to attend.

In addition to the 11 skaters who attended the morning skate, both Ilya Samsonov and Matt Murray were present on the ice as well. There was some speculation that the Leafs might turn right back to Murray to give him an immediate shot at redemption after Saturday's flop of a game, but following the skate, Sheldon Keefe revealed that Samsonov would get the nod tonight in New Jersey, with Murray drawing in for the Leafs' next game, back in Toronto on Saturday night in a grudge match with the Oilers.

The Buds have 19 games left on their schedule and will need to work on building some chemistry with the newest members of the team before the playoffs arrive. The bad news for Ryan O'Reilly is that a broken finger will cost him the next 4 weeks, which will put him on track to return right around the point when the Leafs will be signing Matthew Knies. Hopefully they can both get into some games at the tail end of the season to get their legs under them before the postseason.