It’s safe to say it’s already been a successful road trip. They stranded Mike Babcock at the side of the Grand Canyon, and the Leafs managed to double their road win total for the season. Now they are in Buffalo, which doesn’t sound like fun, but given that the Sabres are struggling it’s a chance for the good times to continue.
Lineups
| LW | C | RW | Forwards |
|---|---|---|---|
 ANDREAS JOHNSSON |
 AUSTON MATTHEWS |
 WILLIAM NYLANDER |
|
 ILYA MIKHEYEV |
 JOHN TAVARES |
 ZACH HYMAN |
|
 NIC PETAN |
 JASON SPEZZA |
 KASPERI KAPANEN |
|
 PIERRE ENGVALL |
 FREDERIK GAUTHIER |
 DMYTRO TIMASHOV |
| DEFENSIVE PAIRINGS | Defense | |
|---|---|---|
 MORGAN RIELLY |
 CODY CECI |
|
 JAKE MUZZIN |
 JUSTIN HOLL |
|
 TRAVIS DERMOTT |
 TYSON BARRIE |
|
| LW | C | RW | Forwards |
|---|---|---|---|
 VICTOR OLOFSSON |
 JACK EICHEL |
 SAM REINHART |
|
 JIMMY VESEY |
 CASEY MITTELSTADT |
 MARCUS JOHANSSON |
|
 JEFF SKINNER |
 JOHAN LARSSON |
 CONOR SHEARY |
|
 ZEMGUS GIRGENSONS |
 RASMUS ASPLUND |
 JEAN-SEBASTIEN DEA |
| DEFENSIVE PAIRINGS | Defense | |
|---|---|---|
 JAKE MCCABE |
 ZACH BOGOSIAN |
|
 BRANDON MONTOUR |
 RASMUS RISTOLAINEN |
|
 MARCO SCANDELLA |
 HENRI JOKIHARJU |
|
It’s hard to believe the Sabres started losing again with that lineup.
Anyways, here’s 5 things to watch for…
1. Michael Hutchinson returns
Hutch is back! And he’s playing in the first game of a back to back.
While I don’t think this is the glorious slap in the face of Mike Babcock that people were hoping for, but rather a few different things.
- Letting Hutchinson play in a slightly different situation
- Giving Andersen the home start on Saturday after a long trip and in what will be Keefe’s home debut
- They play tomorrow night against Buffalo too. They’ll be just as tired and the odds of winning should be the same in both games.
Hopefully Hutchinson shows some promise tonight, and we can believe that the backup goaltending situation isn’t as dire as we thought it was before.
2. The Rielly/Ceci pairing
It’s still a thing, and it’s still upsetting. Luckily the Leafs have three very balanced pairings at the moment, and it should no longer be about giving Rielly and Ceci the tough assignments, and they can just roll on through.
3. Same lineup as against Detroit
It’s interesting to see that Nick Shore is remaining the odd man out and that Nic Petan is still rolling with the third line. I don’t know how interesting any of this is, but I’m still hoping that Nic Petan breaks out.
4. I’d like to see more of that Johnsson
Andreas Johnsson had a great game Wednesday against Detroit, and wouldn’t it be nice to see him continuing to keep up with Matthews and Nylander.
Johnsson is now back on track to match his totals from last season.
5. He’s Barrie good
Let the goal streak continue.
Game time is 4PM ET on TSN4