Wayne Simmonds not looking forward to playing on an Olympic-sized rink on Friday

With pre-season hockey underway, players are starting to shake their rust off and fans are able to enjoy game action again. Since the regular season has yet to start, teams do not always play in their usual arena, such is the case Friday night, when the Leafs take on the Senators at CAA arena in Belleville. Something of note about this arena is that it is Olympic-sized ice, and when talking about playing in Belleville tonight, Leafs forward Wayne Simmonds had this to say:

With Olympic-sized ice being larger than the ice that NHL players have grown accustomed to playing on, it doesn't seem the Wayne-Train is too fond of the extra skating that he'll have to do. Luckily for him, this is the last pre-season game between the two teams, so he won't have to do it again.


Something to watch for tonight is whether or not Simmonds has in the tank on the bigger ice surface. He's currently entrenched in a training camp battle for a very limited number of roster spots. If his gas tank isn't quite what it used to be, we could see a scenario in which Simmonds starts in the press box or perhaps even placed on waivers for the purpose of assigning him to the AHL's Toronto Marlies.

For those interested in watching the game, it starts at 7:00PM EST, and will be televised on Sportsnet One.