Leafs' number one pastime during road trips is competitive and sounds like a blast

As the Leafs embark on a Western road trip this week, with stops in Los Angeles tonight, Anaheim tomorrow and San Jose on Saturday, the players have quite a few different ways to kill the time. Some listen to podcasts, some catch up on their reading or their sleep, but for a large group of Leafs who occupy the middle of the plane, it's Texas Hold'em that not only helps to pass the time - the players actually look forward to it.

As far as the participants go, the occupants of the eight seats at the middle of the plane are Ilya Samsonov, Mitch Marner, T.J. Brodie, Morgan Rielly, Jake McCabe, Ryan Reaves, Mark Giordano and Tyler Bertuzzi.

Rielly, the longest-tenured member of the team, revealed that the games have been going on longer than he's been with the team. As one of the team's leaders, Rielly has been influential in continuing the tradition. When pressed for some information on who the best players are, Rielly kept it pretty tongue-in-cheek, but did reveal the following:

Fellow defenseman Jake McCabe was much more amenable to revealing some additional information about his competitors.

Ryan Reaves is probably the one whom many would assume is the loudest at the table on any given day, but David Kampf suggests that Mitch Marner is the loudest player, bar none.

For Reaves, he revealed this week that he has never been on a team who has a consistent poker group, so he's enjoyed being a part of this group. Reaves calls these games a "rollercoaster". If you've ever played poker, you'll fully understand what he means by that.

As far as who is winning the most, Reaves suggested that it's either Samsonov or McCabe, though McCabe doesn't feel as though he's done particularly well this year. I suppose that means Samsonov was the team's top dog. However, now that Samsonov has passed through waivers and remains in Toronto, it looks like there will be a pretty big seat open at the table on this week's road trip through California.