When the Maple Leafs play the Ottawa Senators at the Air Canada Centre Monday — the clubs’s first preseason game — they will be willing guinea pigs testing the NHL’s proposed goal-verification line.

It was a concept introduced at the summer research and development camp — a line the width of the puck behind the red goal-line.

In combination with finer mesh over the net, allowing the overhead camera better view, it’s designed to cut down confusion as to whether a puck actually crosses the line. The line is set back one puck width from the red goal line. If the puck touches the verification line, it’s a goal.

Leafs GM Brian Burke offered the Leafs pre-season games as a chance for the league to test some of its ideas because all the games are broadcast.

“We want to always be a top league partner,” said Burke. “We think some of these have merit. Trying them out may help get them approved.”