An Inside Look at Day One of Maple Leafs Training Camp

Following a media day on Wednesday that was chock full of interesting comments and expressed excitement to get back to work from the players, the Maple Leafs began their on-ice work on Thursday morning, with Group A taking to the ice at Ford Performance Centre.

It was exciting to see Craig Berube skate out onto the ice for his first official practice as head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

In terms of how the lines shaped up for the first session, a new potential top-6 emerged for the Leafs, with Matthew Knies being the left flank for Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner. Meanwhile, a potential new 2nd line featuring Bobby McMann, John Tavares and Nick Robertson had their first look together as a trio, and I have to say -- lining up Tavares with a younger set of legs on either side of him has the potential to be very positive.

We were also treated to our first look at Alex Nylander as a Maple Leaf, as he skated in Group A as well, on the 3rd line with Jacob Quillan and Easton Cowan.

Alex Steeves and Chris Tanev were also on the ice with the main group, with Tanev also gracing us with our first look at a brand new addition.

The players appeared to be in good spirits on Thursday morning, and even better form during early drills.

In the end, it was new captain Auston Matthews, and not John Tavares, who led the team in stretches before vacating the ice surface to conclude the first session on day one of camp.

The Leafs will have a couple more days of on-ice sessions ahead before they open their pre-season on Sunday against the Ottawa Senators.